One night while I was out of town, my husband, Paul, attended the church where our youngest son is youth pastor. He enjoyed snuggles during the service from Ava, our 7-year-old granddaughter, and Nolan, our 3-year-old grandson,. <\/p>\n
When church was over, Paul said his goodbyes to everyone. He headed down the hallway to the exit when he heard Nolan\u2019s little footsteps running behind him and then, \u201cGranddaddy! Granddaddy, don\u2019t leave! I need another hug before you go.\u201d<\/p>\n
Yes, a definite heart-melt moment.<\/p>\n
And that got me to thinking about the gift of hugs.<\/p>\n
1) Hugs give comfort.
\nAfter my dad\u2019s suicide, a woman I didn\u2019t know came to his visitation. She softly said, \u201cMy dad did the same thing.\u201d And then she wrapped me in a hug that gave so much solace. <\/p>\n
2) Hugs say what we can\u2019t.
\nI recently attended the funeral of a man who was very special to our family. There were so many things I wanted to say to his sweet family, but the words simply weren\u2019t there.<\/p>\n
3) Hugs show love.
\nDoes anything feel better than a child\u2019s arms wrapped around you? Or what about the hugs from a soldier\u2019s family as he returns from deployment? Hugs speak volumes.<\/p>\n
4) Hugs provide security.
\nA hug before a child leaves for school says, \u201cI love you, and no matter what happens at school today, you have someone at home who cares about you.\u201d<\/p>\n
Those kinds of hugs are wonderful, but the best hugs are the ones we get from heaven\u2014the ones God sends to us in those moments when we\u2019re hurting or when we need to know we are loved. I\u2019ve had many instances in my life like that. Times when things were falling apart or when my heart was breaking\u2014and then I\u2019d feel His sweet presence wrap around me like a holy hug. I can\u2019t describe the comfort that brought. <\/p>\n
A friend once told me about a female co-worker who came to her and said, \u201cWould you mind giving me a hug? No one ever touches me.\u201d <\/p>\n
That was so sad to me. There\u2019s a deep need in all of us to feel loved\u2014and human touch is part of that. So today my challenge is to find someone to hug\u2014a senior citizen who lives alone, a single mom who has the weight of the world on her shoulders, a friend who\u2019s lost someone she loved, a child who doesn\u2019t receive love at home, our spouse, our children\u2014the list could go on and on.<\/p>\n
Just do it\u2014because a hug is a gift from the heart, and it\u2019s always the perfect gift for someone who needs it<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
One night while I was out of town, my husband, Paul, attended the church where our youngest son is youth pastor. He enjoyed snuggles during the service from Ava, our 7-year-old granddaughter, and Nolan, our 3-year-old grandson,. When church was over, Paul said his goodbyes to everyone. He headed down the hallway to the exit […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":116,"featured_media":27560,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"ep_exclude_from_search":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[136],"tags":[50,13],"ppma_author":[474],"class_list":["post-17751","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-positive-living","tag-compassion","tag-love"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"\n