You are the most important person in the world. You are promise. You are possibility. You are hope when our hope has dimmed. You are joy when our hearts are heavy. In you we see the world as we dream that it could be.

Remain excited at the discovery of a leaf; it tells us that there is still beauty in the small, when our eyes have gotten too focused on the great.

Play with each other on playgrounds; it shows us that all people of all backgrounds can meet each other with open hearts.

Do whatever it is that your heart would have you do. Laugh, cry, stomp your feet in anger, dawdle in the morning, resist bedtime at night. Allow us to see how important the moment is to you, and to share, for an instant, the importance of that moment. For you remind us what it is to be alive.

Keep laughing and giggling when you are surprised and delighted; it offers our ears the music of grace.

You command us to be strong, you remind us to be gentle. In your eyes we see the eyes of all children, and, for an instant, we understand what we have in common with all mothers and fathers at all times in all the places on the earth.

You are strong beyond your wildest imagination. Your goodnight kisses can stop an army, your tears can melt the hardest heart.

For you have the gift of innocence. You have the gift of dreams. When we see you laughing and playing, our spirits take wing. When we lift you and hold you, we are consecrating a world of hope.