God First Loved Us

I was thinking the other day about how we love God because he first loved us.  I thought about how, as parents, we first love our own children.  My friend, Lyndsay, has a multitude of great posts about motherhood but this one came to mind in regards to this topic.  I appreciate that she talks about how in the instant you decide to enter into parenthood, your life changes.  I know that I loved my boys from the moment Doug and I decided we wanted to be parents.  I had no idea how much I could love someone I had never met.

When the boys were born, of course, I was filled with love for them.  But that love had been in a desire to love them for much longer.  During the months of negative pregnancy tests, I loved them and desired to raise them and protect them.  Without getting into too deep of doctrine, it is safe to say that I definitely loved my children before they loved me.

And I think they love me because I first loved them.  When you love someone, you desire to serve them.  It's pretty easy to find ways to serve a newborn or, really, any age of child.  And, as our children grow, and they better understand their love for us, they desire to serve us.  I need to be better about finding ways to allow my children to serve me.  When I don't, they demonstrate love in running jump-kick tackles.  (Honestly, LJ did that the other day and I told him we had to stop before someone got hurt.  He said, "Let's see who gets hurt first!"  Good grief!)

Seriously, what are ways you allow your children to serve you?  Help me out here before someone gets hurt.