I love you!

“I love pelicans!”
“I love my Mommy!”
“I love a quarter pounder with extra cheese!”
“I love Jesus!”
“I love Disneyland!”
“I love baseball!”
“I love you!”

These were all responses I got when I asked my kindergartners to tell me something they love. As we talked about love at our Valentine’s Day party, I told them that I couldn’t possibly let Valentine’s Day go by without making sure they knew about two loves in particular. First, God’s love for each of them. They know. I tell them all the time how much God loves them, but perhaps because of that it becomes just another nice thing to say. I want them to know! I told them, “You guys, God loves you so much! Like, He really, reeeeeeeeally loves you! He is crazy about you! God would rather die than spend forever without you!” Then I made them tell each other, “God loves you!” and “God is crazy about you!” with lots of giggles ensuing.

The second love I need them to know is mine. I’ll never forget my first year teaching kindergarten, I asked my students half way though the year, “Did you know that I love you guys?” and they shook their heads no! What?!? They must have known. But I guess I had never said it out loud. So I told them that day how much I loved them. Then they knew. And I’ve made sure to tell every class after how much I love them. They need to know. They need to have no doubt. And so do I. So do we all. Don’t we need to hear those words spoken out loud by another human being and aimed at just us? Those three words may just be the most powerful words there are. Words that can launch a life or save a life. 

I calculated it and I think that I get told “I love you” an average of eleven times per day. Kate tells me she loves me every time we hang up the phone (around three times a day), Mom, Dad, and Jenn tell me they love me when I say goodnight to them in person or on the phone each day (that’s three times), and I’d say that on average I hear “I love you” about five times a day from kindergartners. That’s eleven. And that’s not counting the phone calls I get during the week from close friends or cousins who usually say “I love you” before hanging up and that’s also not counting when I see the words “I love you” written out in an email or text from family and friends. I don’t know what the average is, but I would guess that I’m over the average! I like it that way! So on this Valentine’s Day, go tell someone “I love you!” and up their average!