Who does God love more?

I love you more. That is a game young mothers and their small children play. The child says “I love you!” Mom says, “I love you more.” The child repeats, “I love you more” and the mom says “I love you more!” And this goes on for several more times.

This past week I heard that in reference to how God loves his children. When we tell him that we love him, he says back “I love you more!”

We’ve never doubted that. We have always believed that God loves us more than we can ever love him. But is God’s love different for men and for women?

Let’s take this a bit farther.

Suppose you are a young mother and your little boy and little girl are telling you “I love you!” And you begin the game.

“I love you more!” you say. They giggle and declare, “I love you more!”

I have no doubt that a young mother loves her daughter as well as she loves her son. But let’s see what she does if she lives in the South, and attends a Southern Baptist church, or some Cowboy Church which is so common here, or other fundamentalist evangelical church.

She takes her small children into church – loving them both. But the place of worship she has chosen does not play the game the way she plays it at home.

“I love you” the little girl says. Her church replies back, “I love you.”

“I love you” the little boy says. Her church replies back, “I love you more.”

That young mother has a decision to make.

Will you join me as we help young mothers make the right decision as to where they take their young daughters? Will you help me educate these mothers so they know that from the moment a little boy and little girl walk into the church door, the church has a different love relationship with them? Will you help give young mothers to courage to demand the same level of love for her daughter and for her son?