The Most True Things — A Conversation With my Daughter

Child of mine, let me hold you and tell you why I know it’s going to be okay. See, it’s pretty simple — God loves us; we belong together; and we love each other. Those things right there are the most true things. Other things are true too, but they aren’t the most true. It’s true that sometimes we feel angry and forget those things. Sometimes we’re tired and grumpy. Sometimes we disagree and argue. Sometimes we hurt each other. Sometimes things change and it’s hard, but remember, honey, some things never change — God loves us so much; we are a family; and we love each other. It’s going to be okay, I promise.

Listen, honey. God made us and He loves us. He looks at us and smiles. He made you and your brother. He made you with lots of ideas and energy, Girlie, and He likes those things about you. He thinks about how you will make the world a better place through the things you can make and He can’t wait to see them. He made you to love beautiful things and to love to help people. And your brother, He made him to love figuring things out, to be a noticer. God made him to love building things — He built the whole world — and it makes Him happy that Buddy likes to figure out how it all works. He made him to be good at giving hugs and kind words to cheer people up.

He made Daddy and Mommy too. He made Daddy to be strong and work hard, and to make things orderly. He made him to be good at helping other people do well at their work. And He made Daddy to have wise words for people when they’re sad or in trouble. God made me to love being a helper. He made me with a soft heart to feel what other people are feeling. He made me to love writing and telling stories. And He made your baby brother. We don’t know yet what he is like, but we know God made him beautiful and loves him and he will be a perfect part of our family. God made all of us and gave us gifts and He loves how He made us. He loves when we use our gifts to love other people and to make the world better — that is exactly what He does, too.

God loves all the beautiful things about us, but He also loves the things that aren’t beautiful. He cares about the sad things and the bad things. He loves you when you feel afraid, Girlie. He loves you when you are angry or worried. He loves all of us when we make mistakes or wrong choices.  He loves us even when we hurt other people and make the world sadder. He never stops loving us and His love is what will teach us to be kind and strong again. His love is for always.

God made us to be a family and to belong together. He made us to help each other and give each other so much love. If I am sad I have people to care about me. If Daddy is working on a project he has people to help him. If you are lonely you have people to talk to. If your brother is bored he has people to give him good ideas. And when we love each other well, we all can love other people better and some of them will be like family to us, too, and the love will spread and get bigger and deeper.

And don’t ever forget, honey, that we love each other. Daddy and Mommy are married because we love each other so much and always will. And you and your brothers are the very best gifts God gave us. You make us so happy. We’ll never, ever stop loving you, not when you’re little and not when you’re grown up, not when you’re glad or sad or mad. We’ll love you when we’re happy or tired or working or resting. We’ll always love because love is the best and strongest thing that there is.

You and your brother love each other so much. Think about all the times you take care of each other when one of you is hurt or stuck or sad. Think about the things you do together and how happy it makes you–playing house or tag or train, pretending to be farmers, digging in the dirt, being silly at night when the room is half dark and it’s time to go to sleep.

And for all our lives, Girl, we’ll throw birthday parties, write love notes, work together, tell stories and jokes, and give hugs. And we’ll always be a family, and belong to each other and to God no matter what. And we will have a good life together. Because God and we will work together and make it good.