Love them WELL

This phrase continues to POP into my head - Love them well.... What does that mean?  I recently had the opportunity to take my favorite "little guy" on a date.  Somewhere in the course of our evening our conversation sounded like this, "Do you know I love you?" His response, "Yes," "How do you know I love you?" "You tell me everyday," "How else do you know I love you?" "You give me hugs," "Is there anything I could do more or differently so that you would know I love you?"  "Umm, let me do whatever I want.??"....  (more to follow)
The next day I was sitting next to our 15 year old son and was working through some geometry and was inspired to ask the same question, "Do you know I love you?"  "Uh, Ya,"  "How do you know I love you?" "You tell me so," "How else do you know I love you?" "I don't know, you buy  me the stuff that I need,"  "Is there a way I could let you know that I love you more?"  "Uhhh, I don't know I could say let me do what I want, but that would not be right, so no."
Love them Well ...... sometimes we love, sometimes it's hard, sometimes it's easy and sometimes it just is.
After my little one said, "Let me do what I want," we had the conversation about how that might mean I didn't love him - sometimes doing what we want is not the best for us and we need someone to take our hand and help us understand a better way.  He looked at me and said, "Okay, just do more of this."   Just do more of this - MORE spending time with me, MORE letting me know that I'm special, MORE breaks in your day from the craziness to say you notice me, MORE I get you and you know what I like, you love to watch me run and play, you are my breath and my reason to press on, MORE of this MORE of me.
I believe that God desires the same from us and for us..... Just do more of spending time with me - I know that I think I don't have more time until I take it, but once I do I am overwhelmed with joy and blessing and energy and a deep reminder of all that is good and wonderful.

So take the time to LOVE THEM WELL- it's healing.  Thanks to my mom for teaching me to ask the question,"How can I love you better?"