Showing Genuine Love Like a Four-Year-Old

“May the God of hope fill you with all joy and peace in believing, so that by the power of the Holy Spirit you may abound in hope.”

—Romans 15:13 (ESV)

We throw the word hope around a lot, don’t we?

My four-year-old son says, “I hope we have ba-sketti for dinner tonight.” My husband hopes the New York Giants win their next game. I hope my grocery order doesn’t have any substitutions.

But dinner menus, football teams, and grocery stores will quickly (and probably often) disappoint us if we place our hope in them.

Placing our hope in Christ is so much different. He never fails, always wins, and never runs out. This hope should cause us to overflow with joy, so much so that our love for the people around us cannot be contained.

My son (the four-year-old mentioned above who loves “ba-sketti”) is an absolute extrovert. He will turn the shyest child at the park into his best friend in about five minutes. He will plop down next to a boy or girl playing in the sand and dig while asking all about his or her life.

“What’s your name?”

“Do you have any brothers?”

“Do you like dinosaurs?”

“You want to come play at my house?”

So genuine. So sweet. He meets them where they are. I really think God has gifted my son in this way. He just loves people and he cannot contain it.

As I sit back and watch him introduce himself to the lone child in the sandbox, I think to myself, I want to be that unconditional in my love for people. I want people to feel truly loved because of the genuineness of my care for them.

In each of our neighborhoods, workplaces, and churches there are so many people who need to see the type of genuine love that comes from a hope in Christ. Is there somebody in your life that the Lord is prompting you to have coffee with? To strike up a conversation with at the park? To call or send a text because you know they’ve been through a rough season and could use a friend?

I challenge you to respond to that prompting and engage the person God has placed in your mind and on your heart this week. I promise you, it will be worth it.

Pray:

Lord, You love me so genuinely. Thank You for meeting me right where I am. Thank You for the hope I have in You. Hope for salvation. Hope for eternal life. Hope for tomorrow. Prompt my heart to love the people around me with the same genuine love that You have shown me over and over again. Bring to mind somebody that I can show love to this week. Help me to know how to love them well because of my hope in You. Amen.