Love In Action Speaks Louder Than Words
Motherhood … it’s not anything like I thought it would be.
Get all the advice you can, read all of the books you’re supposed to read, get every single thing on the baby registry and you still won’t be prepared for what comes next. What no one can prepare you for is the overwhelmingly and sometimes all-consuming love you’ll feel for your child. You’ll feel prepared to walk through fire, be big bad momma bear if you have must, do anything to protect that precious little life.
But … motherhood isn’t anything like I thought it would be.
I thought that “I love you” meant I would do any of these things for my child, and I would, but I didn’t realize that ordinary, everyday “I love you” would be so hard. “I love you” has seen me crying in frustration in the hallway outside of my son’s room because he hadn’t slept more than an hour at a time for the past three nights. It’s seen me take a deep breath and try to be calm for him as I rocked him back to sleep for what seemed like the fifteenth time.
“I love you” has seen me giving myself yet another pep talk in the car on the way to work because I want nothing more than to stay home and be with my son. It’s seen me force myself to say a prayer of thanksgiving for the job I have that helps me provide for my family. “I love you” has me whirling around the kitchen like a tornado as I rush in the door to cook a healthy meal for my family only to have my son push his plate away with a dismissive “I don’t like it.”
“I love you” is a wonderful thing to say and such a great thing to hear, but it pales in comparison to love in action—“I love you” is difficult, it’s selfless and as a parent, often unrewarding. As God’s children, we know that He loves us, but how much more powerful when we see His love in action:
“For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life.”
As challenging as love in action can be with our children, spouses and friends, it hardly compares to the love that God has shown to us. So the next time “I love you” sees me falling asleep on the couch at 8:00 because we’ve been up since the wee hours of the morning with a certain little boy’s nagging cough, I will just get a glimpse of the degree of God’s love for us.
