One of my best friends has a nightly ritual with both of her daughters. They are five and three, both completely precious. Every night, after reading to them, my friend says these final words before they go to sleep:
“Who loves you?”
Then both girls go through this litany of naming who loves them (sometimes with help) — parents, grandparents, teachers, and friends. Sometimes the stuffed animals get named too.
I think this is a very dear practice. It’s wonderful that these girls rehearse love right at the end of the day before they fall into sleep.
Perhaps we’ve never taken a moment to go through a list of people in our minds like this, but maybe that would actually be a good idea today. We never outgrow the need for this kind of awareness, a calling to mind of those who love us.
So I’ll ask us all the same question today:
Who loves you?
Smuggling Grace 