Did you read last week’s post and have good intentions, but then didn’t do anything?  Well, here’s an idea that may jumpstart you!  Forget the chocolate and flowers and give something new this year for Valentine’s.  Ummm…actually, chocolate would still be good.   But seriously, what about giving the gift of love through memorizing and reciting a verse or verses about love for a loved one?  This is something the kids could do for grandparents, a spouse could do for his/her beloved, families could learn together for each other, etc.  The entire chapter is below and I’ve bolded the most commonly quoted sections (verses 4-8a and 13).  Children of any age could make or help decorate a cut-out heart or card with the verse(s) on it to serve as a memory reminder and/or part of the gift.  Older children or teens might enjoy making their own version of the words in heart form, as seen below. 

Above is a sample of the type of “Take Action” ideas in Parenting with Scripture, paraphrased from the topic, Love. 

1 Corinthians 13 – The Love Passage

If I speak in the tongues of men or of angels, but do not have love, I am only a resounding gong or a clanging cymbal.  If I have the gift of prophecy and can fathom all mysteries and all knowledge, and if I have a faith that can move mountains, but do not have love, I am nothing.   If I give all I possess to the poor and give over my body to hardship that I may boast, but do not have love, I gain nothing.

Love is patient, love is kind. It does not envy, it does not boast, it is not proud.   It does not dishonor others, it is not self-seeking, it is not easily angered, it keeps no record of wrongs. Love does not delight in evil but rejoices with the truth. It always protects, always trusts, always hopes, always perseveres. Love never fails.

But where there are prophecies, they will cease; where there are tongues, they will be stilled; where there is knowledge, it will pass away.  For we know in part and we prophesy in part, but when completeness comes, what is in part disappears.  When I was a child, I talked like a child, I thought like a child, I reasoned like a child. When I became a man, I put the ways of childhood behind me.  For now we see only a reflection as in a mirror; then we shall see face to face. Now I know in part; then I shall know fully, even as I am fully known. 

And now these three remain: faith, hope and love. But the greatest of these is love.