Unconditional Love, Christmas Parades, and my boy’s ‘Pant’s on the Ground’!
Happiness Comes through holding on to those we love.
Have you ever been in a public place and had one of your children embarrass the heck out of you?
A couple of years ago we decided to take our family of six to the local Christmas parade. Now, keep in mind this is a small town, where everyone knows everyone. Anyway, the parade begins and our family is parked on the curb watching the bands play, gathering candy, and marveling at the mini cars….everyone’s having a blast. Then I look over, and all I see are my three year old son’s butt cheeks right in front of me. He decided to go potty right in the middle of the street, in front of the entire crowd!
Now as a parent, there are two possible reactions here: to drop everything, leave the child with his pants down, and run and hide your face in shame, or to accept ownership of the naked boy and deal with the situation. I’m not saying who did what, but I chose one and my wife chose the other….we still get a good laugh out of that one!
That’s a very lighthearted story, but it really illustrates how we tend to react in one of two ways to the actions of our loved ones. We either focus on them, or we focus on ourselves. Focus on them, on their wants and needs, is unconditional love. We accept them for what they are and love them regardless of their actions. Focus on ourselves brings selfishness and embarrassment, and is based on conditional love. If you meet my standards, you win my affection. One builds the loved on up, and the other tears them down.
This holiday season, as we spend time with our loved ones, let’s make sure they know we love them for who they are and there’s not anything they could do that would make us love them less….the way our Heavenly Father loves each of us. This is the true essence of Christmas.
