Earning His Love

I have a little game I play with my babies.  Okay, it’s not really a game, more of a brainwashing.  It goes like this:

Once the babies are old enough to hold on my hip – just that point when their little ears are close to my lips all the time – I whisper these words:

“Who loves you?”  and I answer them:  “Mama!”

Of course, I kiss those ears, too – because who could resist.

And because those babies are told that little phrase several times a day, in a few months they answer me back.

Once the babies are older, I whisper that phrase as I put them to bed or in rare moments when I get to hold them again.  Yesterday as I was tucking my blonde little three year old in for his nap we played our little game:

Who loves you?

Mama!

He thought for a minute and then asked me:

Mama, why you always love me?

And I said:

Because you’re my boy and I’m you’re mama.

I did NOT say:

because you always listen

because you make me happy

because you love me

because you do everything right and express yourself clearly and are always rational and levelheaded.

No.

I said:

I always love you because I’m your mama.

And that’s why God loves us. Because He’s our Father.

The LORD your God is with you, the Mighty Warrior who saves.
He will take great delight in you;  in his love he will no longer rebuke you,
but will rejoice over you with singing.  Zephaniah 3:17