Day 9 - Love

But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control; against such things there is no law.
-Galatians 5:22

Today is the first day of praying the fruit of the Spirit over our sons, and we begin with love.

But anyone who does not love does not know God, for God is love. -1 John 4:8

They are one in the same. God=Love and Love=God. We must show our sons what real love is in our daily life. In English, we have one word for love. Greek, for instance, has three words for love in the New Testament. We can be handicapped by our lack of wordage here and have to be deliberate in teaching what real love is (verses love for food, cars, toys, etc).

{Agape - self-sacrificing love, given to those who have done nothing to deserve it}
This is the love that God has for us, and the kind of love He wants to produce in our lives. We can never accomplish this on our own because it goes against human nature. We must have God work this love through us.

May my son love the Lord his God with all his heart and with all his soul and with all his might. (Deuteronomy 6:5)
May my son, when he becomes a husband, love his wife as his own body. He who loves his wife loves himself. (Ephesians 5:28)