There are few things that will do as much damage to a child in its early months and years of development as deprivation of love. Deprive a child of love and you virtually create a living dead person. Even as we grow to maturity our need for love never abates. When it comes to this need we are all like little children, hungry for approval and affirmation. There is something about a little child that naturally evokes compassion. Their need for love strikes deep into our hearts bearing witness to what is most important in life. It takes no small degree of callousness, therefore, to deny love, affirmation and compassion to a child. If, with regards to our need for love, however, we are as vulnerable as little children, why should we treat adults differently? The outward form of the person may express self-sufficiency, but we must learn to look deeper than this. The soul does not change in its needs. In God’s sight we are all like children and God wants to give us love and affirmation through each other. There are few things that grieve God more than when we deny love and affirmation to another person. Even people who annoy us and those who are hostile to us; God wants us to love them because they are his children. Can you imagine telling a friend that you dislike the child that they adore? How can we then have this attitude towards any of God’s children? They are precious to God and must be loved by us. You cannot love God and not love his children.
Think about who you need to show love to.
Read 1 John 4:7-21
