“that Christ may dwell in your hearts through faith; that you, being rooted and grounded in love, may be able to comprehend with all the saints what is the width and length and depth and height — to know the love of Christ which passes knowledge; that you may be filled with all the fullness of God.”
Ephesians 3:17-19 (NKJV)
The first Scripture I made my firstborn memorize was Proverbs 6:20: “My son, keep your father’s command and do not forsake your mother’s teaching.” He was going through that toddler stage of testing authority so, like many parents, I looked to Scripture for answers and advice to help develop godly character in him.
And that’s certainly not a bad idea! But eventually I realized that emphasizing good character in the absence of a solid understanding of God’s unconditional love for him was the wrong order. God doesn’t love him because -- or when -- he is good; God just loves him. No matter what.
Now, I get a good chuckle over this being our family’s first memory verse. We still examine and memorize verses about character, but we have learned to first build a foundation of understanding that God loves him, no matter what, no matter how many mistakes he makes or how big they are -- and that there is nothing he can ever do to change that. My prayer is that he will be grounded -- grounded in the love of Christ that never changes, never diminishes, never runs out, never stops and never - not for all eternity - fails.
Dear LORD, I pray that Christ will dwell in my child’s heart through faith and that he will be rooted and grounded in Your amazing love. Establish his understanding of the unconditional love of Christ - it’s width and length and depth and height - so that he will be utterly filled with all the fullness of God. In Jesus’ name, amen.
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