How do you spell “love”? Well…obviously, I like to spell it “luv” but I was talking FIGURATIVELY not necessarily LITERALLY. But we all DO spell it a lil differently.
I mean, just today I decided to do something sweet for my 12 year old boy. I thought, “Hmmmm…I do love that sweet, smelly boy. Just to show him HOW MUCH, I’ll dig out his stinky gym clothes and wash them for him…socks, undies, and all.” Then I proceeded to hold my breath and empty his gym bag…while I was in that odorous, dark place I thought I’d take it one step further and clean out the bag. I even started organizing….putting things where any logical person would want them, of course. “Man” I thought, “he is LUCKY to have me!”
Later while patting self on back (again, figuratively not literally), I hear: “MOMMMMMMMMMMM????” I’m thinking he’ll be like, “I just wanted to tell you how AWESOME you are for washing and organizing my nastiness. You must really, really love me. Thanks, mom. I’ll get a college scholarship now FOR SURE.”
Um. As you can imagine, it didn’t really go down that way.
We started down the road of where?/why?/how could you?? He had a million reasons for WHY there were 3 pairs of socks in that bag…and why his school ID was loose at the bottom of the bag and not neatly put away in his school backpack…and why there were 2 1/2 empty water bottles (each served a different purpose apparently).
Bottom line – I rocked his world. My effort to HELP him wasn’t showing him love, it was questioning his personal process. I was, in effect, telling him that I could do it better and his way was the wrong way. Hmmm. Aren’t I always begging God to show me how to love him and prepare him for his future? I kinda undid some of that by deciding how he SHOULD spell love.
I decided he should spell it: M-Y-W-A-Y
Trust me, clean out/organize can be a love language to me!!! FOR SURE!
We’ve all been there. Whether our kids are 2 or 20, God made them unique and different from us. Isn’t it time we did a lil investigating into how to love them better? Not our way, but theirs? That’s JUST what we’ll talk about at MIC on Thursday 2/2.
Come join us as we chat, laugh, and – hold on to your hats – dip STUFF in chocolate fountains!!! Bring some mom-friends and grab a bag of something fun to dip in chocolate to share. Let’s learn how THEY spell love/luv and let us love/luv on YOU a bit, too!
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