On April 2, my daughter turned 13. That's 13 YEARS old. I'm not handling it very well.
I understand that this is just the beginning of many years where my baby girl is less and less a baby and more and more a lady.
To top it all off, on May 16 she had her first "date." Well, it wasn't a date, date. She went to a banquet with a boy and afterwards she, he, and all her friends stayed for a dance at which I don't think they ever danced together. I can handle that, OK.
These adolescent years are so critical, and I know she will be faced with choices and situations that will have a hand in defining who she will be.
All this has me thinking more and more of the lady I want her to become. I want her to be a woman of deep faith and love for God that spills over into her love for people. With all the choices she is facing I want Christ to be her first consideration and final word. There will be mistakes and there will be hard times. It is in those she will come to understand and appreciate grace. It is going to be difficult for me to see her hurt with her first heart break and struggle with regret.
I want to be the hands, feet, arms, and ears of God to her through all this to demonstrate our Father's love and grace.
As I was waiting for our Sunday morning Bible Study to begin, I was reading through the first chapter of Phillipians and ran across a passage that immediately caused me to think of my daughter.
And this is my prayer: that your love may abound more and more in
knowledge and depth of insight, so that you may be able to discern what is best
and may be pure and blameless until the day of Christ, filled with the fruit of
righteousness that comes through Jesus Christ -- to the glory and praise of
God. (Philippians 1:9-11)
Paul sums up what I have in my heart for my daughter as we enter into this phase of her life. I want her love of God to abound through her increased knowledge and understanding of Him so that He will provide her witih the ability to make Christ-centered choices and ultimately point others to the same God she is following and loving.
I still can't believe she is 13... years... that is...
