TEACH LOVE

I was having a conversation with a fellow mommy and she laughed and disagreed when I said we teach our kids love. I get where she was coming from, because love is just an emotion we feel and can’t be taught… right?

Our kids learn everything from us. It’s not always something tangible like writing their name or saying thank you and hi- it’s also what they observe. Our kids learn everything from us …

Love is patient,

Love is kind,

Love is all that it is in my favorite passage of all time. (Corinthians 13:4-8)

Love is ultimately, to me, Acceptance.

When you accept someone as they are and how they are going to be without your influenceà that is Love.

It simultaneously means the other. Not to say you can’t do one without the other.

Because you can love and not accept.

But to love truly and purely and with no limitations

That is Acceptance.

I love hard and at the root of that is my accepting those fully to love them freely.

It’s not something that comes naturally; I have to remind myself always.

It’s just something I realized at a young age and have applied to all my friendships and relationships of substance.

I remind myself to accept my brothers and their flaws,

My friendships and their truths

And most importantly I apply this theory to the love I have and will teach to my daughter

She’s only three (going on 13, I swear ask anyone) and the dynamics of our relationship start with me accessible to understanding her.

I guide her and I nurture her. But it isn’t always my way or the highway with her.

I give her the liberties to also develop on her own.

Not just how I want her to be.

She has to understand where I’m coming from too.

It matters that I start to accept her now.

She is who she will be, even at the tender age of three.

I’m watching and I’m listening.

I’m mothering the best way I know how.

With no guidance or influence from others,

With no positive, personal experiences from my adolescents.

I need not hers, or anyone’s permission to be her mother.

To be her protector.

Her supporter.

Her friend.

I know I will teach her love.

I will teach her how to love and what love is.

All parents do, whether you agree with me right at this moment or until the end of this piece.

We teach our kids “LOVE”

They’re watching… they’re listening… they’re absorbing.

They will love how we show them to love and receive it.

That’s why it’s important to be in healthy relationships.

I want my daughter to see love between her dad and I.

To see us hug, kiss, hold hands, cook together, clean together, open doors for one another.

She needs to hear us say nice things to one another.

Laugh together; enjoy each other’s company, be supportive of each other’s goals and consoling with each other’s pain.
(and if not you get out. it's important our children see their parents respect each other ... if we're better separately, than separate we shall be.)

It’s imperative that I set the foundation for her limitless, authentic love.

It’s imperative that I practice accepting her now.

So she can feel love.

See love.

Hear love.

… Be love. <3