Building Character: LOVE

Last week, I introduced a series I'm beginning on the blog on Building Character.  As a family, we are studying a character trait each week and I thought some of you might be interested in keeping up with it.  (If you want more information on the nuts and bolts of what we are doing, you can read how to get started on this post.)

We are starting out with the Fruits of the Spirit and are going in order, so week one, we talked about LOVE.


Fruit of the Spirit print from Grey Linen Shop on Etsy

The operational definition of LOVE that we use is, "Giving to others without seeking personal reward."  The opposite of love is selfishness.  All week long, we highlighted actions that we saw that were done out of true love.  It really challenged our incredibly self-centered (and age appropriately so) pre-school child to think about showing kindness when there was no benefit for himself.

The corresponding Bible passage we used is 1 Corinthians 13:4-8 -

"Love is patient, love is kind, and is not jealous; love does not brag and is not arrogant, does not act unbecomingly; it does not seek its own, is not provoked, does not take into account a wrong suffered, does not rejoice in unrighteousness, but rejoices with the truth; bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things.  Love never fails."

With our little ones, we emphasized that love is kind and that it does not seek its own.  We chose the Bible account of Jesus giving up His life on the cross to save us from our sins, the greatest example of love ever shown.

Working on these character traits with my Littles has been humbling as I realize just how much I need to work on my own shortcomings in these areas.  I still fail.  But with God's mercy and grace, tomorrow I will have a chance to try again.


Blessings to you, dear readers!

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