Yesterday, after a long and bittersweet day, I dropped something off for a friend of mine and went back to my car. I noticed two little girls across the street diligently picking up large seed pods on their lawn that had fallen from a tree. The girls might have been about six and five years of age. As I got in my car, I heard one of them say to the other: “You really are doing a great job.” The intonation used in that phrase was not that of a child, but of an adult – or rather, a loving parent. In that brief instant, I felt I could sense the echoings of hundreds of loving words that had taught a young child to love and encourage others as well.

I drove away inspired, knowing that in the midst of a depraved and lost world, there is yet great hope. “And a child shall lead them. . . .” But first come loving parents.