Will you love me no matter what?

Yesterday when I picked up M from school, I could tell from the first hello that he was a little tired and grouchy. When we got home, he was watching a movie with his brother for a little while. I told both boys that it was time to switch off the movie, it was a nice afternoon and we needed to go play outside for a little while. M was not very happy and proceeded to protest and get quite upset!
I found myself starting to get frustrated with him and was starting to respond in a similar nature to my son! I then paused and realized my behavior and reaction was not helping an already volatile situation!
I asked him to go to his room, but he came out not long after and he just fell towards me, putting his arms around my legs and just sobbing, I said "do you just need mommy to hold you for a little bit"? He said yes so we went and sat in our big laZ-boy chair and I rocked a sobbing, tired little boy! We sat for a few minutes and then he seemed ready to move on with the rest of his afternoon, I told him I was going to make fruit smoothies if he wanted to help me. While we were in the kitchen he said " mom, do parents love us no matter what?" I said yes M, and as your mommy I will and  I still loved you even today when you were grouchy.

Wow, what a powerful moment for me as a mother! It was also a reality check for me to understand how important it is that our kids know and understand we still love them even when they are not acting or responding in a loving way!

As many of you know I am a thinker and analyser, sometimes it gets me in trouble! But this time it was good,   I started to think about how even we as adults think about this too. "Will you love me no matter?"  Will our friends love us when we say something hurtful?  Will our husbands love us even if we gain a pound or two? Will our children love us when mommy gets frustrated? Will our parents love us even as adult children if we make a poor decision? Will God love us when we mess up badly?

We live in a world that seems to be dominated by performance. Very often even as followers of Christ we still put conditions on love. As an adult just like my son I too need to be reassured that "no matter what we will be loved". 

This morning I was reminded of the verse in the picture below. We don't need to fear the " Will you love us no matter"  with God as His love is perfect and is not based on performance, or what we say.

 I am thankful again for how God uses my children to point me back to Him again and His truth.