A healthy relationship with her brother is also very important...
Healthy relationships with her extended family are important...
I know this...I know that both my husband and I play a huge roll in our daughter's self image...
I also know I will fail her.
I know my husband will fail her.
Her brother will fail her..
Her grandparents, aunts, uncles & cousins will fail her...
Guess what, I don't need a study to tell me...
the number one most important relationship my daughter needs to become a healthy, responsible woman with a great self image...
Her relationship with her Creator God, Abba Father, Jesus Christ...
He.Will.Never. fail her!
and because of this I decided to write her a letter....
Dear Sweet Daughter of Mine,
I love you more than you can fathom {that is, until you have your own children, but until then}. I want you to have a life filled to the brim with love & joy.
What I want you to know...need you to know.
You are designed to be loved.
We all know that deep in our core, that we are created for love.
But please never confuse what that love is. You were created by the God of the universe to be loved by the God of the universe. In the deepest part of your soul you will yearn for that love and search for that love.
Make no mistake that you deserve that love, there is nothing wrong with this desire to be love.
But know this,
that NO man, no woman, no child on this earth that can love you enough to fulfill that need.
God created that desire so that you would seek Him.
I love you more than you can fathom, but my love for you is nothing compared to God.
Your father loves you more than you can fathom, but his love is nothing compared to God's love for you.
Also, I am so very blessed to have met, fallen in love with, married and fallen more in love with your father.
But guess what...
He is not my soul mate...
He does not 'complete me'...
If for some reason your father was not in my life I would be sad, terribly sad, but I would go on and live the life that God created me to live, because my life is not set on a earthly man that I have chosen to live my life with. No man on earth can make me whole!
My life is set on the Heavenly Father I have chosen to seek after.
You are beautiful. Yes, I am your mother and because of that I will always believe you are beautiful. But I also know that you are beautiful because of who created you.
No article of clothing, hair style, make up brush can make you more beautiful than God Himself. I will tell you that you are beautiful, your father will tell you that you are beautiful, your grandparents, friends, aunts & uncle, will tell you that you are beautiful {your brother may not, but that's just because he's your little brother!}, and someday, when you are grown {35'ish}, men will tell you that you are beautiful...those words, my words, "daughter, you are beautiful" aren't what make you beautiful! You need to tuck this away in your heart, hear it over and over, what makes you beautiful is that the God of the Universe, the God that formed the stars in the sky, the mountains & oceans, paints the sunsets each night, that God...He.Created.You. He formed you! He drew the curve of your cheek, placed the twinkle in your eyes, counted every hair on your head, knew the size of your feet and the strength of your legs.... He is why you are beautiful! You are not beautiful because your father and I tell you, you are beautiful because He says so!
That life filled to the brim with love & joy that I mentioned at the beginning of this letter...that isn't something that just happens. And notice I didn't say a life without pain. Not that I want you to have a life of pain, but I also know that pain helps us grow, that pain turns us to our Creator. The greatest pain so far in my life was the first 17 days of your life...not knowing if you, my precious daughter, would live. But that pain turned me into the arms of my God. I sought out His Love and Peace and through that pain my life was filled with love & joy.
God's plan for your life is to
"prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you hope and a future.
{Jeremiah 29:11}......but don't stop reading the passage there...keep reading...
"Then you will call on me and come and pray to me, and I will listen to you. You will seek me and find me when you seek me with all your heart. I will be found by you,” declares the Lord."
We need to seek God with all our heart...God's plan 'not to harm us' plays into the fact that we are seeking Him! Not seeking a life free of pain, not seeking to be beautiful, not seeking to find a man to share it with...
When you seek God and allow HIS plan to dictate your life, that is when the remainder of His plan for prosperity & hope will become fulfilled ...
oh, and prosperity isn't 'the American dream'...God's idea of prosperity looks a little different. Prosperity is a heart issue not a bank account number!
There is so much more that I want you to know. So I will end this letter with...
"till next time!"
Your loving, faithful, full of mistakes mom!
