❤️ APPRECIATION, ATTENTION, AND THE ART OF LOVING A CHILD

Love means different things to different people, but to me, love for children is spelled A-P-P-R-E-C-I-A-T-I-O-N and A-T-T-E-N-T-I-O-N.

I have said it many times: love is not a feeling; it is a verb. Every word that defines love in 1 Corinthians 13 is an action word, love is kind, love is patient, love does not envy, love endures. Love does. Love moves. Love acts.

And so, in my decades of working with and learning from children, I have come to see that when we say we love children, what we really mean is that we appreciate and attend to them.

Appreciation: Seeing the Child as a Person of Worth

Appreciation means accepting and ministering to the personhood of the child.
To appreciate a child is to see what many adults often overlook, that a child is a person of worth, endowed with the power of judgment, the capacity for choice, and the ability to lead.

Children are not inferior beings waiting to become human. They are already human, equal in dignity, though distinct in development.

Attention: The Gift of Thought and Presence

Attention, on the other hand, means giving thought and presence to a child’s needs. It is the art of being thoughtful enough to understand and present enough to respond.

Sometimes, the most important thing a child needs is not a gift or a gadget, but you. Your eyes that notice. Your ears that listen. Your arms that assure.

Attention is care in its most active form: the willingness to anticipate needs, identify threats, and prepare to meet and mitigate them in line with law, ethics, and empathy.

A Lesson from the Sky ✈️

Recently, my three-year-old son and I boarded a Delta Airlines flight. Shortly after we sat down, a smiling flight attendant came over, greeted him warmly, and pinned a Delta lapel on his pocket.

She waited patiently as I helped him put it on. My son, curious as always, touched the lapel and asked, “Daddy, is this an award?”

I smiled and said, “Yes, son. It’s an award, it means they recognize that you’re here.”

Moments before we landed, the same attendant returned. “The pilot would like to meet your son,” she said. “He can visit the cockpit, see how things work, and meet the captain.”

For a split second, I hesitated.
I was already late for an important engagement, a program I had flown across states to attend. But something in me whispered: Slow down. This moment may never come again.

So I waited.

When we disembarked, my son was ushered into the cockpit. The pilot shook his little hands, invited him to sit, showed him the controls, and said, “Look, we wear the same lapel, you’re one of us.”

It was a brief exchange, but one that etched itself in both our hearts.

The Power of Simple Gestures

Was that encounter extraordinary? Perhaps not to Delta Airlines, but it was to me, and more importantly, to my son.

I have flown with him many times before, but never had anyone taken that extra step to see him, celebrate him, and acknowledge his presence.
That moment wasn’t about luxury. It was about humanity. It was about love made visible through appreciation and attention.

My Charge to Every Parent, Teacher, and Adult

We must look for opportunities, big or small, to show our children that they are seen, valued, and worthy of our presence.

Because in the end, every child remembers how we made them feel, not how much we spent on them.
Love to a child is spelled A-T-T-E-N-T-I-O-N.
Love to a child is expressed through A-P-P-R-E-C-I-A-T-I-O-N.

The heart of love is not perfect. It is presence.

So as I write today, this is my charge to every parent, teacher, and adult:
Be the lapel someone pins on a child’s heart. Be the pilot who says, “You matter.”
Slow down long enough to make a memory that will last beyond your lifetime.

Because one act of appreciation today may become a child’s anchor tomorrow.

Do have an INSPIRED week ahead with the family.