I feel loved when...

Recognizing the unique ways my kids register love spoken to their hearts can be tricky. For some of them, it's more obvious. They seek, request, demand attention in a very specific manner with the clear desire for a very specific outcome. Mom, can I teach you to play chess?  Um, let me think about that. Well, no. You may not. Find another method of communicating affection between you and I, mmmmkay baby? (I adore games. But chess. Really? I'm afraid it will snore me to death. Half my life is already gone, for the love of middle age (!) Can't Spend The Rest Playing Chess.) 

With other kids, those who are more laid back and aren't all up in my grill all the day long, it can be tough to determine what it is precisely that translates I am loved for them.

But I want to learn. (Even if it involves rooks and pawns and knights and bishops and queens and kings...who I will undoubtedly come to know...) Because aside from chess oh, babes. I want you to know you are loved. Deep in your soul, where you find all that is you in the still and quiet of the darkest night, I pray you realize your worth and your value and your meaning to us, your parents and your family. That you feel in the depth of your being that if you did not walk this earth at this very moment, it would be a much worse place.

You are valuable beyond measure and because of that reality lived and breathed, you are capable of achieving enormous good. You just are. 

So tell me, what makes you feel loved?

Clover: I feel loved when mom says "I love you, Clover."

Meadow: I feel loved when my awesome mom gets me something.

Onyx: I feel loved when dad lets us drive the mower. 

Flint: I feel loved when dad helped me when I fell down.

Stryder: I feel loved when I help mom in the garden.

Jayla: I feel loved when mom and I go somewhere and we talk in the car.

Tyden: I feel loved when I talk to mom while she is cooking.