Love is patient, love is kind

Teaching our children to be kind and patient with one another is a difficult teaching and one that takes many gentle reminders and prayers. Raising children is really another window into seeing God and appreciating him as our Heavenly Father. The Bible teaches us that God expresses his grace to us through his kindness (Eph. 2:7) and He is the God of patience (2 Peter 3:9).

A good memory verse for our family is 1 Cor. 13: 4 "Love is patient, love is kind".

Whenever the kids get impatient with one another (especially in sharing toys) or say something unkind to each other, I remind them of 1 Cor 13 by saying "Love is...." and they fill in the blank. It immediately causes them to stop and think and to take a minute to quickly apologize and do the right thing instead.

God's word is truly powerful and penetrates the heart (Heb. 4:12). It is awesome!