Knowing Your Identity in Christ: I am Dearly Loved (Ephesians 5:1-2)

How would your family life change if you truly believed—deep down—that you and your kids are dearly loved, on your busiest and messiest days?

On this quick episode of 7 Minute Devotions for Busy Parents, host Christen Clark explores how embracing our identity as “dearly loved children” is our most transformative identity in Christ. Christen shares wisdom from Ephesians 5, practical ways to model sacrificial love for your kids, and her own family stories to help you with yours

• [00:01:11] Rooting your parenting in the truth that you are "dearly loved"
• [00:04:23] How kids naturally imitate their parents

Resources:

• Instagram: @7minutedevotions, @christenclark
• Family Podcast: @collidekidspodcast

Transcript

SPEAKER_00 0:01

Hello and welcome to 7 Minute Devotions for Busy Parents. I'm Kristen Clark, and I'm so glad you're here. I have two questions for you. The first one is Have you listened to the Collide Kids podcast yet? If not, I want to encourage you to listen. There is a link for that in the show notes here. And listen, I've had some amazing guests come on the show these past few weeks and so many interesting stories and topics. It's a show the whole family can enjoy together. So you can listen with your kids. You don't have to worry about anything inappropriate. It's just fun for the whole family to enjoy together. So I encourage you to listen. Okay, my second question is: are you busy right now? Well, of course you are, and that's why you're listening to this show. I'm right there with you. And sometimes in the middle of everything, we're managing and keeping afloat, it's just easy to forget something really foundational: who we are. And more importantly, how deeply we are loved. So today we're gonna slow down and sit in this identity statement for today. This truth from God's word. I am dearly loved. Today we are starting in Ephesians chapter five, and we're gonna look at the first two verses. It says, follow God's example, therefore, as dearly loved children, and walk in the way of love, just as Christ loved us and gave himself up for us as a fragrant offering and sacrifice to God. There is so much packed into that. But I want you to notice the order. Before Paul tells us what to do, he reminds us who we are, dearly loved children. That's our identity. And then he says, because of that, because of that, follow God's example, walk in love. And what is that example? Jesus, the way that he loved us and gave himself up for us, the sacrifice that he made. When we talk about sacrifice, it's important to remember this wasn't just a symbolic idea. In the Old Testament, sacrifices were real. They were costly, they were heavy, they were meant to show how serious sin is and how much it separates us from a holy God. It wasn't meant to be beautiful. It was meant to be sobering. And all of that was pointing forward to Jesus, the final perfect sacrifice. So when Paul says walk in love, he's not talking about a surface-level, feel-good kind of love. He's talking about a sacrificial, self-giving love, the kind that puts others first, the kind that costs something, the kind that reflects Jesus. And here's what's so powerful: we don't walk in that kind of love to earn God's love. We do it because we already have it, because we are dearly loved. If you think back over everything we've learned in Ephesians, all these identity statements point back to dearly loved, right? Because we've been chosen, adopted, redeemed, saved by grace through faith, created for a purpose, brought near, reconciled, part of a family rooted in love. All of these point to that same thing. You are deeply, fully, undeservedly loved by God. He didn't have to choose you, he wanted to. And this is where I love how this passage connects so clearly to us as parents, because God is showing us what it looks like to be a loving father. He doesn't wait for us to get everything right before he draws near. Honestly, that's exactly how we parent. One of my favorite things growing up was watching home videos. My family loved them. We would sit and watch them over and over again, laughing at the same moments every time. And now I get to do the same thing with my kids. And one thing I've noticed is that kids mimic what they see. We have these videos of my kids when they were little pretending to lead children's church, because that's what I did when they were in preschool, standing up, teaching, doing all the same things that they've seen me do. It was adorable. It was really funny too, but it was also telling because they weren't doing that because I told them to. They were doing it because they were watching me. That's how kids learn. They mimic, they follow our example. From infancy, from tiny little babies, this is how they learn to talk, to walk, to emotionally respond, to interact with the world. And that's the picture here. God loves us. And then he invites us to follow his example, to watch him, to learn from him, to imitate him, not out of pressure or obligation, but out of a relationship. And as parents, we have the same opportunity to reflect that kind of love to our kids: a love that leads, a love that teaches, a love that sacrifices, so that they can learn to do the same thing. So I'll say these three once, and then I want you to repeat the identity statement for today at the end so you can carry it with you this week. Our identity statement for today is I am dearly loved. God has loved me sacrificially through Christ and calls me his child. Because I am dearly loved, I choose to walk in love and reflect that love to others. Let's say the identity statement one more time together. I am dearly loved. Let's pray. God, we thank you so much that we are dearly loved by you. Thank you for being a good father who demonstrates your love through Christ and shows us how to walk in love and how to be loving and how to give sacrificially. God, I pray that you would help us to not only be inspired by your love, but to be a conduit of your love into the world. Help us to show that love first to our children and also to the people around us that you've given us the opportunity to share that love with. God, I pray for anyone who has the opportunity to share the gospel with someone this week, that they would step into that, that they would share that love, and that they would not be afraid or ashamed of what you have done in their own lives. Help us to share our stories willingly and to know that you are with us and that you love us so much. We pray all these things in Jesus' name. Amen. Friend, I just want to remind you today that you are not just loved. You are dearly loved. You are a dearly loved child. And that is so amazing to think about that. It should change everything in the way that we act and the way we live. This week, pay attention to how you receive that love and how it flows out of your life. And if you know of someone who needs that reminder today, send this episode to them because sometimes we all need to hear it again. Thanks so much for listening and remember who you are and who you belong to.