Love: The Foundation of Being A Successful Parent

In a world that is becoming more dangerous each day and is now almost full of hatred and anger, love is where we should start so that our children will grow up to be loving and caring people. Love should start in our own home where our children are being nurtured and where they grow and matured.

However, in our present generations and also in the past, many parents don’t feel love themselves and are not able to show their children the love and guidance they need. It is important that we make love as the foundation or basis of raising happy and confident children and, at the same time, become successful parents to them. But in order to achieve these goals of raising happy children and becoming successful parents, we need God to heal us of past brokenness and guide us so that our lives as parents will reflect and show the love and guidance our children need from us.

Some of us may have looked for love in the wrong places in the past. Some may not have felt loved and protected in their childhood. We cannot love our children the way God wants us to if all we feel is the brokenness we once have. This is why we need God to work in our lives and let Him be the source of love we could not supply from within. Then we need to cultivate that love and practice it outwardly by showing it to others, especially to our own children.

Aside from our family, relatives, and friends, God is the source of love where we can go to and draw love from on a day to day basis. This love, in turn, can flow from us to our children who depend on us. Prayer is one way of asking God to fill us with love, and to help us so that we can be consistent in giving love to our children.

As parents, love is something very important, a gift that is in our power to give to our children. It is what our children yearn for every single day of their growing years, even until they become adults. We still do yearn for our parents’ love even if we are parents now ourselves, don’t we? Well, the gift of love that you give your children is like a well where they can draw from as they are growing. If this well is contaminated with negativity such as anger, bitterness, or hatred that comes from your past brokenness, you are only letting those toxins pollute your children. Instead of happy and confident children, the result will be angry, bitter, and unhappy children. We cannot raise happy children and be successful parents without love – the kind of love that sacrifices so that our children will grow to be the kind of persons we want and God wants them to be.

Your children are given to you to love and care for. It’s during their childhood that they learn so much from you. You need to nurture and love them as much as possible. They need to know they are truly loved and cared for by you. The days of childhood will come to an end before you know it. You don’t want to have regrets and wish you’d done this or that when they grow up someday filled with anger or unhappy because you neglected giving them the love they needed when they were growing up.

We might have experienced or seen others seeking love in all the wrong places. Why? Because their parents have rejected them when they were young. Remember that children can discern when their parents who are supposed to love them the most do not.

We don’t want to see our children grow up to be broken or troubled someday. In loving them, we help them become better version of us. We should not give up loving them no matter what they become in the future because they will always be what they are – our children.

• Eat Meals Together

Eating meals together with your child is one way to let him know you love him. You might be in a hurry to go somewhere else or to do something else, but you can think of ways so you can have meals together with your child.

• Listen Attentively

When someone you talk to is listening to you attentively, you feel the love. I'm sure our children feel our love, too, if we listen to what they are saying attentively. Listen without interrupting and let your child finish what he has to say to you. Sometimes, when our minds are busy somewhere else, we don't listen but instead, dismiss them with an "okay" and pretend we listened.

• Play with your child

Parents are not always busy. They always have time to play with their children. Play with your child even if it's just for a few minutes. It is one way of showing them we care about them and love spending time with them.

• Give your child hugs and kisses

Little gestures like hugging and kissing your child, even without using words, are powerful ways to let them know we love our children.

• Tell your child you love him

Our children need to know that we love them. Actions are not enough to show our love. It has to be spoken, too, because our children need to hear that we love them.

There are a lot of ways we can show our children our love. We can think of fun activities to do with them during our free time or on weekends. As parents, we can think of words to tell them how much we care for and love them. We can let them know in many ways that we are proud of their accomplishments, no matter how big or small.