Love is also a verb
So just in case you didn’t realise Love is a noun, however it is also a verb. Remember how you were taught in school, a verb is a doing word. That’s the teaching I remember, funny how we remember certain teachings isn’t it. A verb, a word used to describe an action. So if the word love is an action, a doing word, how are we about showing it rather than just feeling it.
To feel love usually happens because someone has done something, that special thing that someone did, the way your parents treated you when you knew they loved you, that Christmas morning feeling when everyone goes out of their way to make each other feel really loved. How do you show love? Have a think about it, is it about doing something for someone else, making time for someone, encouraging someone, how we love different people in our lives we approach very differently. Have a think about how you show love to your parents and the differences to how you show love to your children or to friends.
This past week we have had massive storms, trees down in our street and a whole fun day of no electricity. When the power came on I went to bed in my now warm house feeling blessed, when we feel blessed and realise our blessings it makes us want to bless others, is that how blessings work? I awoke the next day and decided to bless my neighbours and went about making chocolate chip muffins. I boxed them up with a little card that said “Love thy Neighbour”. My husband and I braved the rain, our little dog had no choice and we went and delivered them leaving them on doorsteps. One lady who I had seen the day previous carrying tiles up a ladder to her husband who was trying to repair their roof saw me place the box of muffins on her doorstep and the door flung open. She thanked me for stopping the previous day with our kids and volunteering them to help her by taking her place climbing up the ladder, I told her if there was anything we could do to just let us know. I had never met this lady before the day of the storm and she burst into tears thanking me for making muffins. Love is a verb.
How did Jesus show love? How do we teach the children that Jesus loved the people. It’s not good enough to just tell them Jesus loved the people, Jesus loves you.
How do we explain it to them so that they comprehend it. We tell them about a Jesus who healed people, who cared for people, who blessed the poor and the distressed and the sick. Jesus showed mercy and kindness, he defended the weak, the poor and the needy. By reading the bible we learn of a perfectly selfless man in everything He did.
That is how we explain it to children, but how do children really learn, they learn from “doing”, there is that word again, a verb is a doing word. If we go out of our way to show love to the children, we teach them how Jesus loved. Now, we may walk around thinking that we love children all the time just by looking out for them and looking after them. Children don’t see that as love, sorry, all that running around, all that strapping into child seats, all that feeding, that story reading in bed, children don’t translate that as love. We do, they don’t. The reason this is, is because most children are blessed, they are lucky enough to grow up in a loving home whose parents know the correct way to treat and care for children. They have grown up in the knowledge that this is how parents care for them and how parents and family behave towards them.
I believe they see love as the kindness you can show, the consistency in the kindness that you can show. I have a little girl who comes to my house, I know she loves to paint, so before a visit I always make a mad dash to the shops to buy her a fresh canvass. She loves to come to my house, see how it works. It’s not about the canvass, its not about the painting, its about the thinking about the child. We feel love when people do kind things for us, when they act kindly towards us, well so do children.
I was recently in the kids ministry class and it was the morning where the children were doing a presentation of the Lord’s prayer in front of their parents. One boy in the class didn’t want to go up to the front and join in. I knelt down and told him how much his mum would love to see him at the front, and although it was hard, he was doing this for her and to make her happy. He reluctantly went to the front and joined in with the show. Later on in the morning, he came up to my “busy table”, the place the children know where I keep all my teaching bits and pieces and the glue etc, etc, he pointed at some treat sweets I had in a bag and asked me “who are those for”, I answered, “those are for brave children that went to the front to do the Lord’s prayer performance.” He came back with the note below in the photograph. You see showing kindness, love, blessings is mutual. Jesus loved people and showed great kindness, in return people loved Jesus and continue to show the kindness He taught them.
Don’t misunderstand me here, I’m not saying give children sweets or treats and they will love you, I am telling you this story because this boy upon finding out that I was going to do something kind for the class went away and did something kind for me. He took a piece of paper and went and wrote me a little note, it was a blessing, He knew what he was doing was a kind thing to do or say, and he knew that me rewarding them for going up to the front of the class was a kind thing to do. Blessings bring on blessings.
I have just recently left a church, sounds drastic, but God was nudging us and shuffling us along, we can’t take Territory for Him if we don’t let God move us on. Anyway it was Big church, and sometimes I think the Big Churches feel the need to encompass all the people by saying the same thing often which is “We love you”. Well, its ok to say this, but its a whole other thing to show it. Or, worse still, say it and then not show it.
That’s the tough thing, getting around to all those people to show kindness, so it’s sort of like we will cover all that with one quick platitude “We love you”. Is it really that difficult to show love to the mass, when it’s a simple as this;
Be mindful of people, ie. connect more deeply with people rather than acting in a detached manner.
Be approachable
Be bold
Be self-giving, time and things
Is it that hard, really? I don’t think you can use the words We Love you without doing the above four easy things. I think showing the opposite, i.e. that there is really no love being shown, is to be detached, unapproachable, and non giving. Do that and see how quickly people realise that the platitude is just that, a remark that has been overused and is no longer thoughtful.
So how do we show love like Jesus, how do we teach the children that Jesus loves them. We remember that love is a verb, we “just do it”. We remember what they like, what they don’t like, we talk to them, we come alongside them, we are bold with our feelings with them, we are self-giving. So that when we say, I love you, they can see it is genuine and learn how a Jesus that they can’t see loves them. We first teach very young children to recognise that Jesus loves them like they feel their parents love them. We say, your mummy and daddy had you, you are their child so they love you, in the same way God created you, imagine how much more God loves you when he made you, and your parents, that’s why we teach them Creation.
However it is our job to remain continually teaching them and showing them about a Jesus that loves them daily “This is my commandment, that you love one another, as I have loved you.” John 15:12. It is His commandment that we continually do that, and not only to children but to everyone, let’s not be people who say it and don’t show it, I know I’d rather be a person that is remembered for saying it less but showing it more. “Love” is a verb, it is a doing word and action.
Matthew 14:14
When Jesus landed and saw a large crowd, he had compassion on them and healed their sick.
John 11:35
Jesus wept…. once more deeply moved, came to the tomb. It was a cave with a stone laid across the entrance, Take away the stone, He said……Did I not tell you that if you believe, you will see the glory of God? So they took away the stone. Then Jesus looked up and said, Father, I thank you that you have heard me. I knew that you always hear me, but I said this for the benefit of the people standing here, that they may believe that you sent me.
Matthew 15:32
Jesus called his disciples to him and said, I have compassion for these people; they have already been with me three days and have nothing to eat. I do not want to send them away hungry…..
Mark 6:34
When Jesus landed and saw a large crowd, he had compassion on them, because they were like sheep without a shepherd. So he began teaching them many things.
Matthew 8:16
When evening came, many who were demon possessed were brought to him, and he drove out the spirits with a word and healed all the sick.
John 3:16
For God so loved the word that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life.