Scriptures: 1 Corinthians 13:4-7, Luke 15:20, Genesis 33:4, 45:14-15, 27:26, 1 John 3:16

Home and happiness should go together, and they do if love is in that home. Home is the laboratory where the most potent mixture of love should be found every day. Far better for a family to die without food than to live without love. Love not only makes the world go ‘round, but it makes the home stand strong. The world needs the kind of love that Paul describes in the 13th Chapter of 1 Corinthians. Without question, no poet, no poem, no prose, has ever captured what real love is all about like these beautiful words. In this message, Dr. Merritt details what love means according to the Bible's most important chapter on love, and how these verses apply to the home.

"I want to ask you fathers especially this question. Are you seeing to it that your family feels loved? Let me tell you three things that must be true for your family to know that they are loved: (1) Verbally, they must hear that you love them. You need to tell them constantly 'I love you.' (2) Visibly, they must see that you love them; hug them, kiss them, touch them, hold them; show them in the way you treat them you love them. (3) Viscerally, they must feel that you love them. They must know in the deepest part of their heart, and in the depth of their soul that they are loved by you unconditionally. It must be constant and consistent throughout their life." --Dr. Merritt

Keywords: home, Christ, godly, Christ, America, house, build, Thomas Jefferson, David and Burt Bacharach, affection, Jacob, Isaac, Braille, Princeton University Cutaneous Communication Laboratory, Dr. Delores Krieger, New York University, UCLA, Dr. Ross Campbell, How to Really Love Your Child, Marilyn Monroe, emotionally connected, Mark Twain, humble, courteous, selfless, kind, patient, considerate, forgiving, optimistic, Julius Gordon, compassion