I’ll never forget holding my first child just after my wife gave birth to her. As this beautiful one minute old miracle lay cradled in my arms, I hugged her gently. I experienced a rush of emotions, but the overwhelming feeling was that of love and connection. Without question, it was a magic moment of love and connection to my newborn baby herself. But there was something beyond that as well. Something far beyond. I don’t know how else to describe it than to say that I felt a deep sense of connection to God, the Creator of this Universe. A connection to God, the Creator of Life. And a connection to Life itself. More than anything else, there was a feeling of…Love. A feeling, which was really more of a knowing, that God loves me and my baby with a love beyond all loves.

And then, with my mind racing as time itself seemed to slow down and expand, I started to think about what I wanted for my newborn daughter. I thought about what kind of life I wanted her to have. I thought about all the challenges and difficulties of growing up in today’s world. I thought about the complexities of raising a child. It all went through my mind so fast. And then somehow I knew that the single most important thing that we, as parents, could teach our child was just how much God loves her and how much we love her. Actually, it was more of a download than a thought. And then I felt so calm. I felt so at peace. A sense of peace that I had gotten the message, that I now knew what it’s really all about.

Today I would say that this insight has become our guiding light in parenting. The single most important thing that we could ever possibly teach our children is just how much God loves them and how much we love them. I hope that you, too, will become dedicated to teaching your own children, and the children that you care about, just how deeply loved they are. As parents, and as caregivers, it’s the most important thing we may ever do.