Love perseveres

Love perseveres

Feb 25

Love to me means family. ~ Joshua, age 7
Matthew, age 6

Just like choosing to love well, perseverance is a choice.  It is something as parents we know how to do because there are so many situations that call for perseverance.  For example, we choose to persevere through potty train because it is socially unacceptable to allow your healthy teenager to go to high school in diapers.

But what about circumstances that don’t have societal pressures behind them?  Do we choose to persevere through the temper tantrum and not give the cookie?  Do we choose to give consistent consequences when school books are forgotten or homework is not completed?  Do we choose to stick to our dating parameters when our middle school daughter wants to go to a movie alone with a boy? Do we choose to not allow something we know is wrong even if “every one else is allowed to do that?”

Perseverance is a choice, sometimes daily.  But as parents we must sometimes make the hard choices not only for the protection of our children but also to train and guide them. Remind yourself that when you do make these difficult choices, you are ultimately choosing to love your children.