In theory, we all say that - but.... it's a lie.
In my humble opinion, it is impossible to. (My wife just let me read an article from her fav mag: Australian Women's weekly, which had an article on this, and got me thinking).
Each child is different, some are girls, some are boys.
Each have their own personalities, likes and dislikes.
Each child likes to do different things.
Each child is at a different age, and the way you interact with each child is.... different.
The interaction a parent has with a child, is special and unique between each relationship.
Some personalities match, some grate.
Sometimes you have similar hobbies, sometimes - you have nothing in common.
To be fair, I cannot say I like my 3 kids equally. They are all so different.
For my daughter, the cliche is true - not just because of the father-daughter bond, our personalities seem to match. But we have no common hobbies - spending time together, besides lazying around is.... challenging! That's where my wife comes in - they can go shopping together, manicure/pedicure, scrapbooking etc. Thankfully in God's wisdom, he made us Male and Female, and together as one, my wife and I tag team parent our kids. But we do enjoy each others' company.
For my boys, their personalities are quite different too!
One is loud, the other used to be quiet, now getting louder....
One is really into sports, the other prefers his lego toys, but from the brother's influence is getting into soccer.
As a father - that's where being male comes in - I love rough playing with them, going to watch the ultra violent, fantasy type movies, sometimes kick the ball around. Spending time with them, is more activity based.
My older son likes music and play the piano. So sometimes we hang out by playing the piano together - something which I do enjoy quite a bit.
My younger son, likes to play his lego, and play by himself. So I let him be.
Their ages are quite different too. My interaction with my older son, the TEEN, is different with the younger one - due to their ages.
My older son is more talkative, so times I need to withdraw, when it gets... a bit much.
My younger son is more reserved, and I do need to be more proactive, to engage him.
But they do equally irritate me, when they fight with each other.
It's easy to equally not like, but impossible to equally like or treat a person.
As parents, we do try to be as fair as possible with them - in how we reward or punish them, in terms of giving things to them, privileges etc - that is easy. But that's a bit different with liking or loving them equally.
Then again, liking is quite different to loving.
When God sent Jesus to die for us, he did it out of Love, although he may not have liked us very then (we who rebel against him). Like is a feeling; Love is... a decision, leading to action.
I love my wife through thick and thin - there are days I like her, and other days.... I like her even more! :)
Well, my promise to love her, has nothing to do, whether I like her at that moment or not, or even if I'm "still in love"or "feel" that I love her. It is decision to be willing to lay down my life for her, whether or not I feel like it or not.
That is God's definition of love, not dependent on "feelings" not dependent on what one does - nothing can ever separate us from the Love of God, nothing we can do to make God love us more, or love us less. God chose to love us, and thus send Jesus to die to save us, and God did it when we were his enemies!
My promise to my kids is to try to be as fair as possible towards all 3 of them (although they'll always think we're biased), I cannot promise to like them equally (I'll try not to dislike them all equally!), but I do also promise to try my very darnest to love them (a choice I make in my head), to care and provide for them, and most importantly to bring them up to know and fear God.
I do no think I'm able to "love" equally, whatever that means! But I do pray that God will grant me the wisdom to love them as He first loved us.
Ephesians 6:4
Fathers, do not provoke your children to anger, but bring them up in the discipline and instruction of the Lord.
ok, I'll have to work on not making fun of them so much that they are provoked to anger!
