Last week I had little boys on my mind and some of the unique things about how they are made up.  And this week, it is little girls.  (Sorry, I just couldn’t resist the title of this article.)  And last week was about behavior issues while this week is a little more about the emotional aspect of being a father of a little girl.

Up until she walks down that aisle to marry the boy who will steal her from your heart, YOU are the most important man in the world to her.  And the way that you will model what a real man and husband looks like is how you relate to her mother.  I am not so naive as to realize that husbands and wives don’t always stay together.  But that is a subject for another day.  My point here is that your primary job is to love your wife the way that you want her husband to love her one day.  So model for her what love looks like, what honor looks like, what tenderness looks like and what steadfastness looks like.

Little girls are special.  There is nothing like the look of a little girl in her sundress on Sunday morning as she gets all dolled up for church.  Tell her she is beautiful.  Tell her every day.  Tell her in different ways.  Show her that you think she is as pretty as her mother.  Some day some stupid animated movie, TV show or magazine will try to give her an aberrant view of feminine beauty and she needs to be armed to withstand that.

Tell her she is smart!  Tell her that she can become anything that she wants to be.  Tell her she can be the President one day or the CEO of a major corporation.  But tell her that she will make a great Mommy some day.  And make sure she knows that one is not better than the other necessarily.  But the world will assault her with the idea that being a Mom is sub-par.  She needs to know that it is an honorable calling and that she is worthy of such a lifelong task.

Here are a few other quick thoughts this morning:

• Do things with her.  Do the things that she likes.  If other dads are too cool, then that is their loss.
• There are few things as comforting to a crying girl than your hand and your shoulder.  Never forget this!  She will never be too old to bury her face in your shoulder and shed a few tears.
• One day she might ask you to buy her a pony. Unless you live on a farm, do not, I repeat – do not buy her a pony on her birthday. However, it’s OK to rent one for the day though.
• Ice cream covers over a multitude of sins. Both yours and hers.  Know and remember her favorite flavor.
• Today she’s walking down the sidewalk to get on a yellow school bus. Tomorrow she’s going off to college in the car she saved up to buy. Don’t blink – these two events are closer together than you think.

And here it is all summed up into one final thought.  Think of your little angel like a beautiful butterfly.  And just like a butterfly, she too will spread her wings and fly some day. But today are the caterpillar years.  Enjoy her caterpillar years.  If you blink, you will miss them.  And you won’t get them back.

Photo credit: Enigma Photos / Foter.com / CC BY-NC-ND
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Photo credit: escapedtowisconsin / Foter.com / CC BY-NC-SA