I have so much planned for her open-oyster life.
I want her to feel heartbreak but not too much – just enough to build empathy and gratitude. I want her to feel disappointment but again, not too much – just enough to make her reach higher. And I want her to experience failure but not with something big – something medium that will teach her she doesn’t always get what she wants.
I want so much for her. Honestly, when I think about what I want for this beautiful girl who is my daughter, my eyes get teary and I reminisce about the days when she was so little she could curl right up on my chest and fall asleep.
I could keep her protected there. I could shield her from the inevitable heartbreak, the painful disappointments, and failures that sting.
But something happened and now that baby girl is nine – really closer to ten (and I almost can’t talk about that either but that’s a different post).
So because I can’t hold her against my chest and sway side to side and sing in her ear, all I know to do when I think of all I want for her is to pray.
Pray like a wild, crazy banshee. Because I love that girl more than I thought possible to love anything ever in my life.
Being my firstborn, she’s the one who has taught me to get over myself already. She’s the one who has shown me how very selfish I really am. She’s the one who opened my chest, pulled out my heart, and tied it to the outside where it remains now and always will.
Yep, she’s the one.
And no, I don’t have a favorite child. Her brothers have had the same effect but it’s just different between a mother and a daughter.
I pray for her future husband where ever he may be. We don’t know who he is but God does.
I pray that God would instill a passion within her so she’ll know exactly what she’s called to do to serve Him.
I pray that something will happen, but not something too awful of course, that will cause her to make her faith her own.
And I pray protection. Oh, do I ever pray protection over this family but especially over Sarah. The world can be a hard place for girls.
So when my dear friend and creator of the Whatever Girls, Erin Bishop, decided to start a fundraising campaign for the ministry, I was all-in because I believe 150% in building up our girls. But when I heard the fundraiser would involve praying for my daughter’s school?
I was really in then.
The Whatever Girls Prayer Challenge begins tomorrow. It will be much like the popular Ice Bucket Challenge except maybe a little bit better because there are no frighteningly cold buckets of ice involved.
If you get tagged, you are simply asked to walk through your daughter’s school and pray. Pray for the teachers. The principal. The relationships that are formed within those walls. The underdogs who worry who they’ll sit with at lunch. The new girl who just wants to be accepted. And of course, your daughter. Pray like a wild, crazy banshee for her. She needs someone to fight for her.
Click here for more information on how to join the challenge . . . And get ready to be tagged . . .
What do you pray for your daughter or any young girl in your life?
Pinnables:
