Love Is a Daughter

Beloved

When your youngest child is leaving for college in a few short days, you will do almost anything she wants. Like a dinner of only ice cream or a last minute dash to Goldy's (Boise's best breakfast).

Two nights ago our sweet girl lay between her parents in bed laughing and hogging our space, lying sideways and pretending to be three years old again. I wanted to freeze those moments in my memory. I wonder does she realize how big my love for her is? The joy that is mine because I am her mom? Does she grasp that I delight in her mere existence?

In this last week before college life begins, Rebecca has received a lot of advice and wisdom from those who love her. I shared this with her:  Don't think you can only share the good parts of life with us. Share the hard stuff too. Share your mistakes. Share your fears. Your worries. True relationship only exists when we are real with each other. And for real - our lives are often messy.

I wonder how differently our lives would be if we lived each day believing God loves us in just this “filled with delight” way.  God loves me bigger and more beautifully than I could ever love my sweet girl. If I never, ever forgot this, what would my life look like? If in every moment of every mistake I get myself into, I believed He loves me just as I am, how much bigger, how much braver would my life be?

Truth is this: God delights in the mere fact that I am his daughter. I do nothing and He loves me still. Delights in me still. There is nothing more. There is nothing less. God demonstrated this to me in how he loved his son Jesus.

“And a voice from heaven said, "This is my dearly loved Son, who brings me great joy." Matthew 3:17

"When God called Jesus His beloved, Jesus did something truly remarkable: He believed Him. And He lived every moment of His life fully convinced of His identity." Jonathan Martin, Prototype

I am loved. You are loved. Simply because we are.

Wise Women