I want you to meet Emma. She’s seven years old, and she knows All. The. Secrets. She taught them to me tonight, and they are too good not to share with you.
1. Plan a date night with someone you love.
2. Be excited All. Day. Long. Be so excited you can’t concentrate.
3. Buy the necklace at Target. It might be $9 of your allowance, but it’s worth it.
4. Put on a pretty dress and ask your mommy to curl your hair.
5. Wait at the window and watch for when your friend comes to pick you up.
6. When she does, race out the door with the biggest smile on your face.
7. Give her a bouquet of flowers and the paper crown you made her. Insist she wear it.
8. Go through the “round doors” at least three times. With. Your. Friend.
9. Help her blow out the candle on her birthday pizookie.
10. Use eenie-meenie-miney-mo to help your friend make difficult decisions. Works every time.
 Emma has figured out what many grown-ups still don’t know. If we want someone to know we love them, our actions speak louder than our words.
I wore my paper crown all the way home. My heart was near exploding.
And Emma got me to thinking…
How can I love louder?
Because Emma showed me that louder is not how many times we say it or at what volume. Louder is what we do.
Our love is invaluable. It is not small. It matters so much, and there is no such thing as too much love for anyone.
Love is our most valuable investment and our most powerful weapon. It’s also the answer to almost everything that is broken.
Who can you love louder today?
When we know Him, we will make Him known.
“No one has ever seen God; but if we love one another,
God lives in us and His love is made complete in us.”
1 John 4:12
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Love this!! I’ve always tried to keep this thought in mind as we raise Lily (and while I work out my own walk with the Lord):
“Don’t you understand that we need to be childish in order to understand? Only a child sees things with perfect clarity, because it hasn’t developed all those filters which prevent us from seeing things that we don’t expect to see.”
–Douglas Adams
So true, Ken! As I watched Emma’s sheer delight at life, I recognized she knew something I needed to know!
Emma told me at her piano lesson on Tuesday that she was celebrating her friend’s birthday that evening. I asked her if she is having a party, and she said, “She’s a grown-up!” I told her grownups need parties too…sounds like you had one! She was modeling her new necklace and could not wait to celebrate!
Oh my goodness! She just melts my heart! And you’re right… grown ups need parties, too! I’m going to love louder! { And I’m curious if you’re the same piano teacher who taught Ashley Hambleton many years ago. I used to take her to your house. }
Oh my goodness is right! Yes, all three of the Hambleton children came to my house. Thank you for that!