I love you because...

For all you KXA girls out there, that phrase sounds familiar and brings back some fond memories. For those of you who aren't KXA girls (the sorority I was in at Baylor), "I love you because..." is something we did at a lot of our retreats. We'd break up into groups, sit in little circles, and take turns telling each person in the circle why we loved them. These were such sweet times because some of my deepest friendships from college were in that group of girls.

Last night, I decided to transfer this little tradition into my small group. I had the lesson all planned out, but decided that the girls could really benefit from some time building each other up, as a lot of their culture is spent tearing other girls down. SO, I cut out paper hearts when I got home from work, gave the girls one for each of the other girls in the room, and told them to write something to each other that started with "I love you because...". It turned out to be particularly fun because my five girls who are the most consistent and know each other the best were the ones there. It was encouraging for me to watch them put such time into their words to lift each other up. I was just reminded how good it is for all of us to be reminded that we are loved and to hear some encouraging words. And even though one of my girls wrote to me, "I love you because you get free Chili's" I still loved the whole experience. I just hope she loves me for more than free food!! :)