Building Heart Muscle Memory

  When your brain has been trained through repetitive practice to carry out a process like playing a song on the piano, you have developed what is known as muscle memory.   Your fingers play the song from procedural memory.   My family recently traveled to Mexico to build a home with 1Mission. We’re seeking to cultivate love in to the hearts of our two girls ages 6 and 7 until love becomes who they are and what they do.   Four tangible measurements of someone who knows God’s love and extends His kind of love to others are:   gratitude service humility generosity   Love your neighbors, as your self does not come natural to man. The golden rule although admired by most does not come naturally either. In order for anyone to love extravagantly with these core virtues there must be an underlying motive.  

We love because he first loved us. — 1 John 4:19

  To humbly serve with thankfulness and generosity is to procedurally train your child’s heart to love. One method is by taking them on a mission trip. The motive is to demonstrate in a real way the grace you say you believe in.   If we embrace the truth, of saved by grace alone, but our children do not see or experience grace lived out in their homes, the idea and ideal of grace seems illusive to our children.   As we pursue our children with the same relentless love God has lavishly extended to us, they will one day embrace the grace God offers through His Son Jesus.   They will then have a clear motivation to practice grace by extending love to others.  

True greatness is a passionate love for God that demonstrates itself in an unquenchable love and concern for others. – Dr. Tim Kimmel

  On this amazing trip we were able to:  

• go without familiar comforts and be thankful nonetheless.
• learn service is not throwing money at something. Service is about making real connections with real people to help them not just out of physical poverty but spiritual poverty as they see God’s grace lived out.
• remember life is not about us. If the experience is about us, we expect something in return for our efforts. When we serve humbly without concern for ourselves we are blessed.
• learn that generosity requires sacrifice of time, energy and resources. In being generous, we learned that it truly is better to give than to receive.

  Watch the entire Grace Based Parenting Conference.   For more information about opportunities to serve with 1Mission visit 1Mission.org.