Your kids hear it all the time… those 3 little words I LOVE YOU. These words can be the world to someone, but do we all show our kids what love really looks like? These real ways to show your kids what love looks like is what really matters.

The other day, Becky’s parents were reading an article that said that kids are far more likely to DO what you do, rather than do what you SAY. I couldn’t agree more. We need to teach our kids with our actions, not our words. Of course, we tell our kids “I love you.” all of the time, but we try to show it, too. It is important for them to SEE what love looks like.

Love is more than saying the 3 little words, it is about the actions that go along with it. The actions are remembered- the feeling that bonds your relationship that can not be explained. Loving someone, and being loved, awakens all of your senses. Not just HEARING it, but really understanding its meaning.

It is giving your wife a hug, holding her hand, or giving her a kiss… and letting your children witness it all. Your kids have to see love in their lives. It has to be incorporated into your life and it is something that may require some work. Its not always about how much you say “I Love You,” but how much you can prove it’s true. If it is not shown in your relationships, the words lose a lot of the meaning.

Love is something that will bring people together. It is telling your kids stories about how you fell in love with their mom, years ago, when you were both in high-school. This is something that Becky and I do with the kids all the time. They love to hear about how we started dating when we were 15 and never looked back.

It is sharing in those silly little moments that just you and your kids understand.
It is laughing uncontrollably for no real reason at all. Or laughing because you should, like when your kids tell you a knock-knock joke that makes no sense at all, but you laugh to make them FEEL loved… and they do! It is “love” that is shared in those little moments of time that you are lucky to capture.

I tell them stories of when they were sick or nervous about something and I would lay in bed with them and pray over them. How I will put my hand on their heart and on their forehead and pray over them. I tell them that I ask God to take all the sickness or nervousness from them and give it to me. I tell them this so they understand how much I love them. I pray aloud, so they can witness that love. I want them to know that we would do anything for them.

Love is there though the tough times in life. It is sitting there, crying with them on the couch when they are told that their injury will keep them from playing their senior year of college Football. Then rejoicing when they prove the Doctors wrong and only miss 2 games. (that was me). It is there when you are on your knees, praying that your son survives a traumatic pregnancy and can prove the doctor’s wrong about what his life will look like once he is born (and then you do!)

At our wedding, we read the Bible Verse from Corinthians 13:4-8
“Love is patient, love is kind. It does not envy, it does not boast, it is not proud. It does not dishonor others, it is not self-seeking, it is not easily angered, it keeps no record of wrongs. Love does not delight in evil but rejoices with the truth. It always protects, always trusts, always hopes, always perseveres. Love never fails…