The Best Gift You Can Give Your Child

Children themselves are gifts to us. They're the physical manifestation of our love as a married couple, and through them, it shows that our love can't be separated because it exists wholly as another life in its own body. As parents, we get the rewarding opportunity to guide, teach, and show the wonders of the universe to our children. Though they're little carbon copies of us, they have their own souls and personalities that we get to nurture.

Everything they initially learn comes from the home that we create for them. Children learn by watching; thus we need to lead by example as parents and as a married couple. That is why the best gift you could give your child this year, and have it make a lasting impact on them forever, is the gift of a strong marriage.

The best gift you could give your child this year, and have it make a lasting impact on them forever, is the gift of a strong marriage.

What Is a Strong Marriage?

A strong marriage is one of devotion to the other person, your spouse. Devotion is defined as love or loyalty for another person, and the word is synonymous with faithfulness, fidelity, and commitment. All of these qualities are what sets a marriage apart from any other relationship because in a marriage you officially promise to uphold these values. The unshakable commitment to these behaviors is what makes a marriage strong.

What Does It Even Mean To Be Married?

Being married means that you are on the same team. They call a marriage a union because you are united as one. Therefore, you must approach life as one: one union, one unit, one team. This establishes a stable foundation from which your child can learn their values because the values are presented and demonstrated by both parents. There aren't two approaches to life or two different outlooks on what the primary values are, but instead, there is an established and unified approach from both parents that communicates clear lessons to their child.

Why Does It Matter?

It not only makes it easier on you the couple if you're on the same page about values when raising your children, but it also helps the community as a whole. Having children isn't isolated to just the family that you have created, but it affects the entire population, and not just in a quantitative “census tract” kind of way.

Our communal morale is what drives the emotions and the behaviors of our society. If we stop caring about our neighbors, then we can start to forget our direction as humans. If we don’t raise our families to positively impact our neighbors and community, then we can begin to forget our differences from animals.

And if we don’t have a strong marriage, then we can misdirect our love toward things that don’t qualify as proper destinations for our love, such as money, power, and mundane things.

Our communal morale is what drives the emotions and the behaviors of our society.

Love your spouse with dignity to create a strong marriage. This shows your children the proper kind of union, which will teach them how to treat themselves and others appropriately.

One day our children are going to grow up and look for their own spouses. If we parents don’t make it a priority to give our children the inner strength and fortitude that comes from the example of a strong marriage and a loving home, then we are setting up our next generation for failure. We need to shed our selfishness and start looking to the other person in front of us. When we are more concerned about their well-being, they will in turn think of our well-being.

We need to reorder the hierarchy of what we find important in our lives and put love, family, and virtue at the top. A lot of Millennials talk about leaving a legacy or an empire behind, but many seem to think of this in terms of money or a business. The truth is that you can leave a legacy behind - but make it one of good souls. Let the home you create and the children who pass through it be your legacy. Teach them how to do the same for their children so the legacy can continue. Young women these days seem to be obsessed with being a #BossBabe, but the truth is there’s nothing more “Boss” than sacrificing yourself for your children and spouse so that good may come to them.

Who Am I To Tell You That This Is Necessary?

My parents played one of the most significant roles in my life, thus shaping my perspective on how I make my choices. They had a stable marriage and made it a priority to tell me that they were always a team. I'm so thankful for how I was raised, witnessing my parent's strong union, through tough times and good. Their example helped me to become who I am at my core. Being raised by a strong marriage helped me make the choices that led me to the life I'm leading now, and I could not be happier with the outcome. My parents showed me the building blocks for what I needed to look for when picking a spouse and creating our life together, which sequentially brought forth new life.

My parents showed me the building blocks for what I needed to look for when picking a spouse and creating our life together, which sequentially brought forth new life.

As a new parent, I find that I'm continually trying to get a smile out of my baby girl, which isn’t hard because she loves to do it. She’s basically smiling 98% of her day, and while those are lovely subjective percentages, I still get worried about that other 2% of the time when she’s not smiling (which I admit is ridiculous). However, that concern shows me that no matter what the case is, parents want to see their children happy, living good lives, and making the right decisions.

If that’s the goal, then gift your child with a strong marriage. I mean this for existing marriages, soon-to-be marriages, and single people working on themselves to prepare for marriage. Even if you're a single parent, you can still teach your child what a healthy marriage should look like and make sure they know that you will always be there for them.

Closing Thoughts

Life can be beautiful if you recognize the true meaning of love, marriage, and children. Denying life its true form of meaning and the reason to exist starves the soul of that beauty. You personally cheapen your own life experience from the bountiful glory it can hold.

You might not agree with everything I’ve stated. You might still think there’s another truth out there. But ask yourself if you’ve ever considered these concepts before in this light? If you haven’t considered viewing life this way before, it might be worth thinking it over. Ask yourself honestly if you’re happy right now. If the answer is no, or you’re not sure, then you should keep looking for a better way to view life.

In my personal journey, knowing the true meaning of love, marriage, and children, has not only given value to these experiences, but also given them a depth of meaning that’s gone beyond anything I could have created on my own. When you’re called to rise to a higher good, such as living out a strong marriage and raising children well, your life feels extremely important and purposeful. The human experience is a wondrous thing, and we should all rise up to our own personal challenges: you’ll gain strength, wisdom, and happiness through it.