Choose Love.
My boys are 8 and 10 years old. I don’t really remember now at what age it was that they first really started arguing. If you’re a parent, have siblings, or have ever cared for children you know that they will come to you often hoping you’ll intervene in their quarrels. I like to empower my children to work it out on their own as much as possible. When you have 2 children, as close in age as mine, who are also homeschooled and together A WHOLE HECK OF A LOT, they have lots of opportunities to practice their skills of working their troubles out! The FREQUENT requests for help in this area as both mom and teacher can get quite tiresome to be very honest with you. So, at some point, I realized that it was all rather simple. I started asking, “Are you choosing love?” Because everything comes down to love! When we choose love we really can’t go wrong! Am I right? Read that again…. Think about it. Really, can we go wrong if we choose love?
When we CHOOSE LOVE we really can’t go wrong!
I’ve realized that this question works really well for me too. Whenever I’m facing any kind of challenging situation, I try to remember to ask myself, “Am I choosing love?”
This can even help to reframe things happening in our lives. Often I know I can be quick to judge others, their words, and actions. Sometimes perhaps we take somebody’s words or actions to mean one thing, when in fact they mean another. Can we “choose love” and reframe the way we see these events? I know it can be easy to take what someone says or does very personally, yet, so often those things have so much more to do with their own pain, fear, or insecurities than it has to do with us. It’s even possible they’ve done something out of love and we’ve just misinterpreted their intentions. These situations are perfect opportunities to remember love!
Jessica Flanigan, author of The Loving Diet, is constantly sharing amazing messages of love. One of the loving practices I learned about in her book is called Ho’oponopono. This practice is founded in repentance, forgiveness, gratitude and love. Very much like Flanigan shares in her book, it can be completed with a quiet heartfelt intention spoken to yourself such as, “I am so sorry we had to do it this way. Please forgive me. Thank you. I love you.” There can be such power in something as “simple” as this.
My friend on Instagram @bodysoulwellness posted a version of this quote from Mother Theresa the other day that I thought was perfectly fitting:
“If you want to promote world peace, go home and love your family.”
Mother Theresa also said,
“Bring love into your home for this is where our love for each other must start.”
Often the people in our homes are the ones we love the most, however, isn’t it surprising how those are the people who sometimes get the worst of us? Let’s work together to CHOOSE LOVE, at HOME and ABROAD!
I share this with you not because I am the perfect model of choosing love, but because I need to work on this as much as ANYONE! It’s such a simple reminder for me and an intention I TRULY WANT to live by and model for my children. I hope you find it helpful too! I LOVE YOU!
