But You Still Love Me

by Amanda Christopher

Recently, I was getting my four-year-old ready for bed. After brushing her teeth, I suggested that she try to use the potty. She responded by saying that she did not need to use the potty, to which I said. “I would like for you to try anyway.” She complied, and did indeed need to use the potty.

Once all her bedtime prep was done, we lay down together in her bed. She evidently was reflecting on the events, and said to me, “I said I didn’t need to go potty but you knew that I did. I was wrong, but you still love me!”

Another time, she was telling me about her day at school. She told me that her class had gone to the gym and run races. I asked her if she ran fast, and she said, “Yes I did. I didn’t win though… but you still love me!”

Both times, I responded to her by saying, “Yes of course I still love you! I will never stop loving you, because you are mine.”

As I try to imagine what might have been going through her little four-year-old mind, I think in one instance, she was feeling the sting of being wrong and in the other instance, maybe feeling the fear of not being good enough. But in those moments, she brought herself back to what she knows is true about her mama’s love. It does not depend on her always being right or always winning or being the best. She knows that I still love her, not because of what she does, but because of who she is — mine.

These were of course very sweet moments with my little girl. But what made it even sweeter was reflecting on the reality of how God loves his own children. His love for us doesn’t rest on our performance, our rightness, or the many other ways we often define ourselves or measure our worth or lovability. His love for us is determined by our identity- we are his.

And the best thing about that is once we are His, we can’t mess it up. If he has made us his, we can’t undo it. Jesus says this in John 10:27-29:

My sheep hear my voice, and I know them, and they follow me. I give them eternal life, and they will never perish, and no one will snatch them out of my hand. My Father, who has given them to me, is greater than all, and no one is able to snatch them out of the Father’s hand.

Because of what Jesus has done, we are fully and infinitely loved. We can’t lose our identity as children of God, and we don’t have to worry about whether we have done enough to make our Father happy with us. He is pleased with us because through faith in the beautiful work of Jesus, we are made pleasing to Him.

So when we fail, when we give into sin, when we don’t measure up (spoiler alert- on our own, we never do), when we begin to feel that there is something more we must do to earn God’s love, we can say to Him with faith, “I was wrong; I messed up. But you still love me!”

And it’s true! He’ll never stop loving us, because we are His.