I LOVE MYSELF WHEN I’M WITH YOU

January 11, 1999

I never really understood;
Perhaps no one actually could,
Why children say, out of the blue,
“I love myself when I’m with you!”

I wonder if she likes my gifts,
Such as, perhaps, enabling lifts,
When tasks I show her how to do
Become, for her, no longer new.

Could it be, after all,
When for some lad, we “take the fall”,
That he might think, “I love you too;
I love myself when I’m with you?”

If children know just how we feel;
When love for them is really real;
They just might say, out of the blue,
“I love myself when I’m with you!”

If we are loved, in our own eyes,
Then we're prepared always to rise
Above vain thrills that end in ills,
And works of love our schedule fills.

So parent, teacher, pastor, friend,
Let’s work together toward this end,
That every child may say, “It’s true,
I love myself when I’m with you!”