Maybe it was the climactic scene from Sunday’s Lose To Gain short film.
Or maybe it was the lovely story I heard at Tuesday night’s All You Sons And Daughters concert.
Or maybe it was the realization of how many male staffers at Good Shepherd are dads with daughters.
Or maybe it was the simple truth that my wife Julie has enormous relational confidence stemming from her unshakable bond with her father.
But for these and other reasons, I have been struck fresh and new in the past week with the pivotal role that dads play in the lives of their daughters.
Because here’s something I know to be true, dads: Love your daughter well or she will find it from someone who doesn’t.
The love she needs from you isn’t comprised of trips to Disney World. It isn’t what you can fit around your work, your play, your idols, or your girlfriend. It’s not even a wedding reception to die for ten years from now.
Nope, the love she needs is the kind that warms formula, changes diapers, rolls Play-Dough, memorizes multiplication tables, teaches purity, reads Scripture, and models holiness.
When you love her well in the nooks and crannies of life, you’ll have the credibility to share with her the peaks of the Kingdom Of God.
Love your daughter well or she will find it from someone who doesn’t.
Here’s what I long for: that in twenty years, when your grown daughter begins a prayer with “Our Father,” she is able to use that term because of you, not in spite of you.