“Be strong and be brave! Do not be afraid or discouraged. For the Lord your God is with you wherever you go.”

Joshua 1:9

I love all of our grandchildren so much. But in this post I want to focus on the youngest, Geoffrey, who turns six years old today.

I immediately knew which image I was going to use. I took this candid picture two weeks ago when I swung by Orlando to take Geoffrey and his brother David out to lunch with their mom. Just watching them together is a beautiful thing and of course you can’t really recognize a birthday without the inextricable fact of the birth itself… and that necessarily involves Naomi too!

Mother and child taking a selfie together and laughing. It is a poignantly lovely moment.

Geoffrey is in the middle of his kindergarten year. This is an incredible age of discovery and learning, and everything about our youngest grandchild demonstrates the truth of education guru Sir Ken Robinson‘s proposition that all children are naturally creative geniuses, loaded with curiosity and eager to learn, intrinsically hard-wired to explore their world. Kids are artists, scientists, inventors and adventurers, primed for investigation and discovery.

Our job is to make sure they have the tools they need, to keep the environment loaded with possibility, to facilitate the process and to encourage them at every turn.

So keep growing, Geoffrey, keep up your enthusiasm for this world – your world, and look to your wonderful brother David and your amazing sister Beks for help along the way. Remember that your dad loves you too, and make sure that you hold on tight to your family.

And always know that your mother’s heart is full to overflowing for you, so talk with her and hug her and love her and play with her every chance that you get. And as for your grandmama and your grandaddy, we believe that you are the most amazing six-year-old grandson we know – we love you to Infinity and Beyond!

We cannot wait to see you Thanksgiving weekend at Uncle Joe’s. Love and hugs, always – Grandaddy DEREK