Our grandchildren are learning about love at an amazing pace in their youngest years. Since navigating love relationships is a key life lesson we can help them early on if we are clear in how we address the issue with them. Let’s talk about giving meaning back to the word love today!
Think about how frequently we ‘love’ and ‘heart’ things in modern culture. From social media to simple conversation we sprinkle love around like fairy dust. While that’s not a bad thing, it might be confusing to young ones learning to sort and navigate their emotions.
We can help. We can take the extra time to point out the differences between our loves when talking with our Grands. Here’s an example. When a Grand brings a project they’ve been working on for us to admire, we can share our delight in a way that points out the difference between the creation and the creator. That conversation might look like this.
“Grandma, look at the picture I drew!”
After taking the picture in hand and looking at it, Grandma says, “This is beautiful! The colors are so vibrant and I especially like the yellow flowers. You are so creative, Jess. I love you and so enjoy seeing your artistic creations.”
In this exchange, love has been directed to the creator of the artwork not only with words, but also with the compliment of a skill possessed by the creator. The higher praise goes to the person. The difference is subtle, but important. When we touch the heart of another person with love, we affect the way they think of themselves. Give meaning back to the word love by directing it to the people around us rather than the things we use, create, or enjoy.
This month in our weekly newsletters we’ve been exploring the eight different types of love identified by the Greeks. Subscribe Today to receive your FREE Family Values Statement Builder and more encouraging in-depth content delivered straight to your inbox!