Do you feel loved?

From time to time throughout our relationship, Patrick will ask me the question, "Do you feel loved?".  It is usually after we have been through a difficult time or maybe after he has done something special for me. 


It is a question that warms up my heart and almost always makes me well up with tears.

When the girls were born, it wasn't long until Patrick started whispering the question, "Do you feel loved?" into their tiny ears.  


Each time I hear him say this to them, I feel washed over in this wave of love.


I guess the question is a reminder of the sweet intention and concern in his heart that we know how much he loves us.  It's such a simple question, but it seems to actually be at our foundation, maybe a question that will be a part of our family's heritage.

This simple question, asked of we girls by our husband and father, will be a part of who we are.  We must allow this care and concern to be buried deep in our hearts, we must ask this of all of the people around us.  It can be the question that helps us to decide how we're going to treat one another and how we will treat our extended family and community.  


I began this blog post in such a sweet and lovey state of mind.  I saved the first part of it because the girls woke up from their naps, and within the couple of hours since saving the draft, Patrick and I got into an argument.  


So, I came back to the blog very hesitantly.  I am here now writing without the lovey dovey feelings, but I felt that it was important to come back and to finish - maybe as a test of the love question I was talking about. 


Do I still feel loved?  Yes, I do.  I come back to this post still somehow knowing that I am loved and knowing that this question is woven very deeply into the fabric of the family that Patrick and I have built together. 

I guess the bigger question is this:  Do you know that you are loved first by your Heavenly Father?  Do you know that His love is perfect and is the love that will remain no matter how you feel?


I am reminded as I write these questions of how important it is to pray for confidence and trust in God's perfect love for us.  


1 John 4:18 (The Message)
God is love. When we take up permanent residence in a life of love, we live in God and God lives in us. This way, love has the run of the house, becomes at home and mature in us, so that we're free of worry on Judgment Day—our standing in the world is identical with Christ's. There is no room in love for fear. Well-formed love banishes fear. Since fear is crippling, a fearful life—fear of death, fear of judgment—is one not yet fully formed in love.