by Norma Budden

Created on: March 10, 2008

Spoken parental love and devotion is important to every child born upon the Earth. Some children may not admit it but it remains a truth embedded deep in the recesses of our souls.

When we hear the words, "I love you," after doing something good, it makes us feel proud. When we hear those same words spoken when sitting in front of the television watching a movie, we smile. However, when we've done something wrong and we hear the words, "I love you," from our parents, it touches the chords of our heartstrings like little else. Despite having to face the consequences of our actions, we know that we are loved and it makes the consequences bearable.

When parents love us and we know it, beyond a shadow of doubt, we don't want to go out of our way to get their attention by upsetting them. We want to do things which will please them so we can show them we love them in return.

"I love you" is a phrase some of us hear too little while others hear it so much it becomes routine to the point they don't even notice whether or not it's being said. Love is not something to be taken for granted and, while it would be nice to hear those words every day, we understand when we don't. After all, it's not like our parents rarely tell us they love us.

Our parents' actions towards us reinforce their love for us on the days we don't hear those three little words spoken. Every time we are asked to clean up after ourselves, to help around the house, even to learn a new task, our parents are showing us they love us enough to teach us responsibility and the importance of working together as a family.

A spontaneous hug, a pat on the back, a family outing, sitting with us while we struggle through our homework, or through heartache, are all ways parents enforce they love us on the days when we don't hear it from their own lips, but the days when we receive the loving actions and loving words are the best days of all!

When we feel loved, we feel we can achieve anything. Because our parents have made us feel good about ourselves, we feel the sky is the limit. Friendships are stronger, relationships are better, school work becomes easier, and we have an excitement about the future that many people don't share because they didn't have the continual reinforcement that they were loved; that they were important, instead having grown to believe their parents actions towards them were as a result of duty and obligation.

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