The sobbing student had to be carried into my office, refusing to come in under their own power. This is a sure sign of a serious problem for a principal.
Normally, there are two types of criers: sad or mad. And this one seemed furious.
The five-year-old stood across from my desk with clenched fists. Tears were running down her face, and thicker stuff was coming out of her nose. I offered her a tissue, but she refused to take it.
“Yep, she’s mad,” I thought.
Priority one in this scenario is to make an emotional connection with the student. A child who’s extremely upset usually won’t respond to reason. They need to regulate before anything more can be done.
I came out from behind my desk and got down on the little one’s level. Kneeling at an angle from her, just out of arm’s reach, I offered her another tissue. She stepped toward me and took it.
This was a good sign.
With a calm, business-like tone, I asked her if she’d ever played with pink Play-Doh. She said no. “I have some. Would you like to try it out?” I said with a grin. Visibly softening, she said yes.
As she rolled out the Play-Doh and used a plastic cookie cutter to make snowmen, I asked her what happened. She told me she wanted to be line leader, but her teacher wouldn’t let her.
I knew the pint-sized pupil also slapped two classmates and shoved another one down, but we would get to that later. I wasn’t sending her back to class, anyway. Not today. So, I let her play.
This looks like rewarding misbehavior, but it’s a great way to calm an upset kid down. Then you can talk sense with them. But the wee girl wasn’t quite ready.
Back at my desk I caught up on emails, while my young friend pressed out snowflakes, but now with bright blue Play-Doh.
“I love you.” she said–out of nowhere. “Thank you. “I love you, too.” I replied. (These are among the most precious and sincere words children say.)
Given how our time together started, I was curious, “Why do you love me?”
I love you because I see you.
Five-year-old philosopher
🎤🫳🏼 Mic Drop.
I’m half a century older than a child who just schooled me on the truest meaning of love. It wasn’t my thinning salt-and-pepper hair, or my wrinkled bespectacled face that she noticed. It was something beyond the surface.
She. Saw. Me.
And we have known and believed the love that God has for us. God is love, and he who abides in love abides in God, and God in him.
1 John 4:16 (NKJV)
Kind reader, God sees you and He sees me. And He loves us both, just as we are. Because He is love
Thank you for reading 🙏❤️
Davids Daily Dose 
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