[By Holly Coble]
As Jim and I left to have a date the other night, we laughed about how Caroline parroted the often heard phrase: “I love you SO much…How much?…So much!” This is one of the phrases that we repeat over and over…. And it tickles my ears to hear her say it to us unprompted. After our parental giddiness subsided, we further discussed why these phrases are important. As we went down the rabbit trail of personal discovery, we talked about how we are not programming a machine to spit out an output unthinkingly or unfeelingly, but rather we are training her mind and heart to have an inner dialogue of truth. We want for her to be so certain of these truths that, when times get hard and she is uncertain of what is real, she knows this is true.
Likewise, God has instructed us to plant seeds of His Truth in our minds and hearts through memorizing His Word. This truth of His love, plans, and promises is unshakable and unwavering. As much as I want Caroline to know and trust me to love her unconditionally, I will fail her. But God never fails. And this Truth with a capital “T” is bedrock. Only on it and through it can I ever hope to love her as Christ has given me the ability.
As we talked about how we want her to have an inner dialogue of these parental truths, I had to ask myself, are we sufficiently teaching her God’s truths of His love and promises to lean on? A child’s mind is fertile ground in which to plant the Word of the Lord!
