Building Lego Towers to Heaven
As a dad, I find I get much more respect from my children and they desire to make me happy when I show them how much I love them rather than tell them how much I love them. A great example comes when I was at home, working on dinner for my family. My 10-year old son yelled from across the room, “Daddy, can you come over here and help me build a Lego fortress?” I told him I could not because I was making dinner, even though macaroni and cheese doesn’t take long to make. He immediately came over to the kitchen, looked at me “making dinner” and that when he becomes a daddy that he would make time to build Legos when his own kids need help with them. I tried to explain to him that I loved him. He said to me, “Really dad?”
It was at that moment that I knew I had hurt my son. He didn’t care how much I said I loved him, he wanted to be shown. He wanted to feel loved, not hear love.
The same is with all of us. If we go up to the alcoholic and say to them that they need to quit drinking because we love them, they are not going to react as well as if we offer to drive them home, get them cleaned up and in bed, and go so far as to sponsor them for an addiction’s class.
We can shout the “I love you” phrase as loud as we can, but until we stand right there with the person in their problems and pain, they will never truly know how much we really do love them. And if we only scratch the surface of their pain and gloss it over with a smile and an “I love you,” then that is how they will view Jesus. They will see Christians, and possibly Jesus, as superficial, not really being able to help them when they need it, not even caring about the real them.
So take the time and build the Legos with all of God’s children!!! Not only is it a lot more fun than making dinner, it will go a long way to building stronger, more sustainable Christian relationships.
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