“The greatest good you can do for another is not just share your riches, but to reveal to him his own.”
(Benjamin Disraeli)

We can bless our children with material things, with educational opportunities, or with our own hard-earned wisdom. All of those things are important and good for their development. But they are not absolutely vital (at least not from us).

What is absolutely vital – what cannot be omitted from the development of a child is simple: Time.

• Time spent listening to them without trying to lecture.
• Time spent watching them without looking for faults.
• Time spent talking with them without an agenda, other than to make sure we ask more questions and make fewer statements.

This kind of time not only shows how much you care for them, it helps them figure out what they can actually offer to the world. When children know in their bones they and their ideas are worthy of genuine interest, they gain a clue to their own intrinsic richness.

The gift of your presence – your interest in them as separate individuals – will be worth far more in years to come than any other riches you could provide.

Peace begins with pause,