“Forgive and give as if it were your last opportunity.
Love like there’s no tomorrow,
and if tomorrow comes, love again.” ~ Max Lucado

February is the month of love. A month of hearts and flowers. A month of romance. Even little children get in on the fun as they exchange valentine’s with classmates. But do they understand what it means to really love someone? Do we?

The word love rolls off our tongues way too easily these days. I love that movie. I love ice cream. I love that nail color. But what does the word love really mean? And how do we show it?

To love – the Greek agapao – is to act without reservation in the best interests of the other person, even if it means sacrifice on our part. Love is not a feeling. It is an unconditional, intentional choice of our will.

And this type of love is related to forgiveness. We show true love in how we respond when we’ve had a wrong done to us. At first, we require little children to say “I forgive you,” even if we (and they!) know they don’t mean it.

But true love – and true forgiveness – is more than just a matter of saying the right words. It must come from the heart. This is where younger children have a huge advantage over us. Little ones often have short memories. They rarely hold grudges. Any desire to “get even” is usually short-lived.

One way we can teach young children to give forgiveness is to teach them to quickly seek it when they have wronged someone else. Often the most effective approach to do this is to model the behavior ourselves. If we don’t humbly ask forgiveness of our children and grandchildren when we have wronged them, then we’re proclaiming, “Do as I say, not as I do.”

God is love. And because He loves us, He sent His Son to die for us. The salvation He offers is the basis for our forgiveness. If we don’t teach our little children the relationship between love and forgiveness in their earthly relationships, they will have a difficult time understanding it later in their relationship with their heavenly Father.

Love and Forgiveness. They go together like the proverbial horse and carriage. You can’t have one without the other. May we as adults remember and model it, especially during this month of love.