Family Unconditional Love

Family

Unconditional Love

The parent, who loves unconditionally, will love at all times

That love will be seen as a love to bring out the full potential on the son/daughter

When discipline is needed it will not come from anger

But a response to make a wrong, right

There are times we as parents, like the father of the prodigal son

Have to let our children go

The type of living the prodigal son wanted

Would not be tolerated in the father’s house

The father’s love had not changed

He loved his son before he left, while he was gone and when he came back

The love for the son who stayed was also the same

It is this type of love, unconditional love, that caused the son to come back

As parents, we also must love unconditionally

Unconditional love will not violate justice and truth, mercy and grace

All of us want the unconditional love of family

And all of us need the unconditional love of our Father in heaven

Who demonstrates that love in justice and truth, mercy and grace

Unconditional Love

While watching television,

 I watched a strong looking man in

his sixty’s get choked up and cry.

The man was talking about his father.

He said he and his father

had a bad relationship.

As a young man out of school

he enlisted in the armed services.

When it came time to graduate from

boot camp he called his father and left

a message that he would be graduating.

The father, who was also a military man,

contacted his son and told him

he was proud of him as a son.

Telling this part of the story was hard and

you could see gaining his father’s approval,

 even though the father was not in his

life, was of major importance.

The two from that point on became best of

friends till his father died after a full life.

All of us want that connection of family.

We want that love that is unconditional.

When we read the Bible story

of the man who had two sons…

 The one son wanted his inheritance

and to go out on his own.

The father loved both his sons…

 The one that stayed at home and the

one who left and wasted his inheritance.

The son who left, broke his father’s heart,

 yet it did not stop the father’s love.

The father of the prodigal son loved unconditionally.

Loving unconditionally is not easy.

Love should always be giving and receiving.

As parents, we need to be careful

when our need for love is in a deficit.

In those times of disappointment we

can allow our hurt to get in the way…

Building the wall of division

that is hard to bring down.

As parents, we need to be careful

 we do not use our children

to fulfill our need for love.

Parents who give to their children

all the things that make them happy…

Parents who just want to

be their child’s best friend.

Many times this hinders the process of

discipline that is needed to handle life’s problems.

  

It is sad to see parents who love their children

with what their children do for them.

Parenting is hard…

 It is sacrificing love on the part of the parent.

God our Father is Love.

We cannot change that.

Look at the rejection God the Father

 has receive from the time He

created the first father and mother.

Jesus with the heart of His Father

said while dying on the cross…

"Father, forgive them, for they do

not know what they are doing."

Luke 23:34

Romans 5:8 is a powerful statement of God’s love…

But God demonstrates his own love for us in this:

While we were still sinners, Christ died for us.

God the Father’s love for us is unconditional

and he will give us everything we need.

Jesus makes that very clear in Luke 11…

 Ask and you shall receive

And in Philippians 4:19…

 And my God will meet all your needs

according to his glorious riches in Christ Jesus.

But His love is not a love that

gives us everything we want…

For what son is not disciplined by his father?

If you are not disciplined (and everyone undergoes discipline),

then you are illegitimate children and not true sons.

 Moreover, we have all had human fathers who disciplined us and we respected them for it. How much more should we submit to the Father of our spirits and live! Our fathers disciplined us for a little while as they thought best; but God disciplines us for our good, that we may share in his holiness. No discipline seems pleasant at the time, but painful. Later on, however, it produces a harvest of righteousness and peace for those who have been trained by it.

Hebrews 12:7-11

The parent, who loves unconditionally,

will love at all times.

 That love will be seen as a love to bring

out the full potential of the son or daughter.

When discipline is needed it will not come

from anger, but a response to make a wrong, right.

There are times we as parents, like the father

of the prodigal son, have to let our children go.

The type of living the prodigal son wanted

would not be tolerated in the father’s house.

The father’s love had not changed…

 He loved his son before he left, while

he was gone and when he came back.

The love for the son who

stayed was also the same.

It is this type of love, unconditional

love that caused the son to come back.

As parents, we also must love unconditionally.

Unconditional love will not violate

justice and truth, mercy and grace.

All of us want the unconditional love of family.

And all of us need the unconditional

love of our Father in heaven…

Who demonstrates that love in

justice and truth, mercy and grace.

 Scripture Reading

Luke 15:11-32 NIV

11 Jesus continued: "There was a man who had two sons. 12 The younger one said to his father, 'Father, give me my share of the estate.' So he divided his property between them.

13 "Not long after that, the younger son got together all he had, set off for a distant country and there squandered his wealth in wild living. 14 After he had spent everything, there was a severe famine in that whole country, and he began to be in need. 15 So he went and hired himself out to a citizen of that country, who sent him to his fields to feed pigs. 16 He longed to fill his stomach with the pods that the pigs were eating, but no one gave him anything.

17 "When he came to his senses, he said, 'How many of my father's hired men have food to spare, and here I am starving to death! 18 I will set out and go back to my father and say to him: Father, I have sinned against heaven and against you. 19 I am no longer worthy to be called your son; make me like one of your hired men.' 20 So he got up and went to his father.

"But while he was still a long way off, his father saw him and was filled with compassion for him; he ran to his son, threw his arms around him and kissed him.

21 "The son said to him, 'Father, I have sinned against heaven and against you. I am no longer worthy to be called your son.'

22 "But the father said to his servants, 'Quick! Bring the best robe and put it on him. Put a ring on his finger and sandals on his feet. 23 Bring the fattened calf and kill it. Let's have a feast and celebrate. 24 For this son of mine was dead and is alive again; he was lost and is found.' So they began to celebrate.

25 "Meanwhile, the older son was in the field. When he came near the house, he heard music and dancing. 26 So he called one of the servants and asked him what was going on. 27'Your brother has come,' he replied, 'and your father has killed the fattened calf because he has him back safe and sound.'

28 "The older brother became angry and refused to go in. So his father went out and pleaded with him. 29 But he answered his father, 'Look! All these years I've been slaving for you and never disobeyed your orders. Yet you never gave me even a young goat so I could celebrate with my friends. 30 But when this son of yours who has squandered your property with prostitutes comes home, you kill the fattened calf for him!'

31 "'My son,' the father said, 'you are always with me, and everything I have is yours. 32 But we had to celebrate and be glad, because this brother of yours was dead and is alive again; he was lost and is found.'"