Love Is the Foundation

Bickering floats through the air as we are on our way to Awanas.  My children, who are blessings from the Lord, argue and complain to each other.

“Mom, she is humming too loud!”

“Mom, she is on my side and is leaning her arm against me!”

“MOOOOM!  He just stuck his tongue out at me!”

I sigh.

Do you ever sigh? 

I want them to love each other.  To love our little family.  To love the church. To love others. And most importantly, to love God.

Sometimes, when these daily episodes of selfishness and irritation creep in, I have to remind myself that they are learning.  They are sinners, just like me.  So I will sigh and recall this truth.

I don’t always respond the way I should either, even though I love all of them deeply.

As we go into this weekend, I am prodded by this verse in Matthew, where Jesus tells us the greatest commandments.  There are only two and they both involve LOVE.

“You shall LOVE the Lord thy God with all thy heart, and with all your soul, and with all your mind. This is the great and first commandment. And a second like it is this, you shall LOVE your neighbor as thyself.” Matthew 22:36-39

As we roll into Valentine’s Day, I know it is a consumer holiday.  But I can’t help it, I want to buy my kids candy and gifts because I love them.  Remember, my love language is “gifts”.

But more than that, I want them to know God’s love, which they will learn from me first, before they know it is God.

By a kind word.

By a helping hand.

By time spent with them.

By a smile when they come in the room. 

By a kiss and a story before bed. 

By daily prayers for them.

They will never know how much I love them until they have children of their own.

Until then, Bruce and I will be God’s love to them, until they own their faith.

One way we help them see how to love others is my surrounding them with great examples.  We hang out with cool people who serve and love Jesus.  We discipline them when they do something wrong because we love them.  We engage with community in love and generosity.  We watch movies that bring out the good and love in others.  We READ BOOKS that focus on the love of others.

If you are looking for a good Valentine’s Day present for your princess this Valentine’s Day, may I suggest one of our Princess Parables books?  Each of them was birthed out of LOVE and teaches Love.

Princess Hope and the Hidden Treasure shows the love between a child and her grandmother.  She would sell everything she owns to buy her lost ring.

Princess Joy’s Birthday Blessing teaches little girls to love their family and to be generous towards others because she is blessed to be a blessing.

Princess Charity’s Courageous Heart demonstrates love by the princess rescuing a hurt boy.  She cared more for another person than herself - showing love in her actions.

Princess Grace and the Little Lost Kitten presents the opportunity to love her father by being responsible for the kittens.  When the kitten is lost, she not only loves the kitty enough to search for her, but she brings her home to show her father her devotion.

Princess Faith and the Mysterious Garden lays out the dilemma of the never-ending problem garden.  The princess shows her love to her family and her father by persevering and having patience.

A Royal Easter Story focuses on saving a little girl in the woods and finding her family.  Love is the central theme of this story from the little girl to the Easter Celebration where Christ is center.  The greatest love is Jesus dying for us on a cross.

There is still time to order these books off of Amazon or from your local Christian bookstore for Valentine’s Day.  We hope your girls will love them and learn to LOVE because of them.  Our prayer has always been to give you moms tools to train up your kids in righteousness.

As for loving our kids and teaching love, I am right there with you.  I pray for each of us an extra dose of grace as we speak into this generation.

Happy Valentine’s Day to all of you!

~Jeanna Young

When Jeanna is not writing, speaking, event planning, or homeschooling, she can be found scrapbooking her life, redecorating her home, loving on her husband, planning fun events for her kids or eating healthy to stay cancer-free!

What to get your husband for Valentine’s Day

“My lover is mine, and I am his” Song of Solomon 2:16

Valentine’s Day is so filled with expectations for me!  My love language is “gifts”, so I am anxiously awaiting the perfect gift from my husband that shows that he has listened to me, he has taken notes, he has read my crazy, not-even-sure-what-I-want mind and got me the perfect gift that he has exquisitely wrapped.  Yeah, that doesn’t ever happen.  But for me that is OK this year!  I can get buried and disappointed with the expectations, but this Valentine’s Day I am coming into it with a fresh perspective.

Instead I am going to focus on him.  He always says,  “Remember to think of me, just as much as the kids”!  He says this is what all husbands want.

Okay, I think, what does that look like?

As we prepare for Valentine’s Day and showing our husbands love, I want to go over the Word WIFE and put some meat on those letters.

 W= Our husbands want us to be Wordly-wise.  

When you think of yourself as a wife, would you say you are wise in the scripture?  One gift we can give our husbands is to know what the Bible says about our role as wives.  Not only know it, but live it out.

If I know what the Bible says about being a good wife, I have everything I need to do the job.  If I am walking with the Lord, I know my husband will feel it. I will be praying for him and lifting him up daily.  I have to make sure that I am filled with God’s word daily and use it as a filter for the things of the world.  Because I can’t do it alone!  I want to be the best wife I can be and I can’t do it without GOD!  I can really be ugly on my own! 

I have to ask myself the hard question : How wordly-wise am I when it comes to being a wife?  Do I know and follow all verses that God has given me?  When it comes to being a wife, do I know what God’s charge is to me? 

I have put together a bunch of scripture that tells us about what God says about being a wife.  Listed them for you. Gen. 2:18; Proverbs 31:10-31; Col. 3:18; Titus 2:3-5; Eph. 5:33; Gen. 2:24;  Eph. 5:21-31

Thought to ponder: the OPPOSITE of Wordly-wise is Worldly-wise.

  I = Our husbands want us to be Intentional. 

I am so intentional with my kids.  Aren’t you? I am planning out their activities and their parties, their entire lives!  I am always trying to find ways to tie their heartstrings to mine and that takes so much time and energy.  I have to plan out my day and be intentional with those moments that I have. I am looking for a key to their hearts. 

But am I being intentional with my husband?  Am I planning my day with him in mind?  The gift my husband wants from me this Valentines Day is to plan on how to love him.  What if I were intentional with each moment I had with him? How much would that bless him and make him feel loved?

For Christmas this year, I did the 12 days of Christmas for my husband.  Twelve days before Christmas I began with something each day for him.  3 types of hot chocolate . . . 4 sleeves of golf balls . . . 7 chapters of a book . . . 8 cuffs to wear. . .  9 snacks for work . . . a 10 minute massage . . . 12 socks for his feet, you get the idea.  And you know what the outcome was? My husband LOVED that I thought of him each day.  I was intentional with my time and he noticed.

Thought to ponder: the OPPOSITE of Intentional is IGNORANT to his needs.

 F= Our husbands want us to be FUN!

I want to be the fun mom on the block.   If you are like me, I am constantly thinking of what would be fun for my kids.  I love when they have smiles on their faces.  I find joy in the things that bring them joy.  But my husband is a grown man, he can take care of himself.  I don’t need to worry about him.  He should be thinking of me and how to bring me joy, right?

I know I don’t think that much about my husband and the fun he may or may not be having.  My husband married me first because I was a Godly woman, but secondly because I was fun!  I think there is a degree of the fun button for each husband.  Because in a study of men, their number two need was for us to be a “recreational playmate”.  You are all probably wondering what number #1 was:  Sex!  What exactly does “recreational playmate” mean?  According to the book His Needs, Her Needs by William F. Harley, “A wife needs to develop an interest in the recreational activities that our husbands enjoy and tries to become proficient at them.  If we can’t enjoy them, we need to encourage him to consider other activities that they can enjoy together.  We want to become his favorite recreational companion and he will associate us with his most enjoyable moments of relaxation.  We want him to want to be with us, because our #2 need is conversation.  If we are his recreational playmate, we will get our needs met because our husbands open up and want to talk to us.”

When I was single, I learned to play golf so that I could be his recreational playmate.  Today, I can’t afford the 5 hours it takes to play a round, but we do love to get away and travel any opportunity that we can.  My husband loves date nights, too!  That speaks love to him.  What does your husband like to do?  Can you do this with him?

Though to ponder:  The opposite of FUN is fatigued.  It is impossible to be fun if I am too tired.

  E = Our husbands need an encouraging cheerleader!

I am my kids’ cheerleader.  How about you?  I am  always encouraging them to do their best and helping them through situations that are hard.  I want them to know that no matter what “I’ve got their back”.  I cheer them on in sports, activities, Christmas plays and academics, just to name a few.  I put notes in their lunch boxes, hug them for each mealtime and talk with them as we tickle their back at night.  I listen to them and help them along the way.  What happens when our young men won’t talk to us – only grunt or say “fine”?  What do we do?  We read books on how to draw them out!  Also what does mama bear do when someone hurts our kids or makes fun of them.  What do we do when their reputation is threatened?  We are the ones ready to fire all guns at their accusers.

So now if I think on my husband, do I do all these things for my husband?  Do I listen to him when he is struggling? Do I give him my full attention or am I doing something else?  Do we write him love notes – love emails – put them in his lunchbox?  Do I tickle his back at night to listen to him and encourage him?  So many women say – “but they won’t talk to me!”  Are we drawing them out?  Do we protect their reputation when other people talk about our husbands or are we the ones that are trashing our husband’s rep?  Do we hang out with people that do?  

We no longer can afford to take our husbands for granted.  Remember 65% of all men, Christian or not, will have an affair before the age of forty. Remember there are beautiful, bright, charming or caring women in the workforce in big numbers who are better at seducing your husband than your husband is at being able to resist.  That alone should keep us from taking them for granted.  And many of these affairs start with an encouraging word – something he isn’t getting at home.  It seems harmless to them to love it, but it is dangerous.

Thought to ponder:  The opposite of an encouraging cheerleader is an EXHAUSTING NAGGER! Proverbs 21:19; 27:15; 25:14

Ultimately, my husband wants a helper – a lover – and a friend.  So this Valentine’s Day, I am committed to be his WIFE and think on him as much as I do the children.  Who is with me?

This weekend is Valentines Day!  Won’t you be a Godly wife, intentionally plan something fun for you to do so that you can tell him you are his biggest fan!!!!