"I Love You"

Today was the last day of a difficult week. Gracie had been unusually fussy and more difficult to manage. I had an average of 5 hours of sleep each night -- not the best thing when you work with little kids. The Lord was truly miraculous to provide me with extra patience (I needed every ounce of it) with the girls. Today I was at the point where I am so exhausted, I stop feeling exhausted and operate by auto-pilot. I was just wearing thin.

In the afternoon, Gracie goes down for a nap and Taylor does "room time" (watching a movie in her room) -- this gives me a couple hours of quiet time to read my Bible and drink a cup of tea. Occasionally, Taylor will come out of her room to talk to me or climb in my lap. Today, she came out of her room and stated, "I just wanted to tell you that I love you and I will very miss you much when you leave." That brought tears to my eyes.

"I love you too, Taylor. Did you know that?"

"Yeah." She snuggled under my arm. That just made my day -- actually, that made my week -- just to hear "I love you" from a four-year-old girl. You never know how much you affect people. Taylor knew I loved her without me saying a word.

I don't often say "I love you" to people, but having someone say it to me really meant a lot. It's not everything, because I put a higher value on actions that say "I love you" rather than the words themselves, but those three little words really made a difference today.