Are you Daddy’s little girl?

I’m writing this on my Daddy’s birthday. He died in 1976. Each year I write him a letter on his birthday. I celebrate his ongoing encouragement that helped me walk into my purpose. Today I write to you about him. Maybe you will find your father somewhere in what I am about to say. I hope that you can appreciate that even as a mature woman, I have moments when I feel like Daddy’s Little Girl.

I discovered that Daddy had special insight about how to nurture me through difficulties as well as help me dwell in possibilities. I did not know in my teenage years that Daddy’s love and God’s grace were the reasons that although sometimes I felt good and sometimes I felt bad, I always felt safe and encouraged and loved.

Daddy modeled behaviors that taught me to accept and allow people to be who they were without judgment. He demonstrated how that might work when he gave me my first dozen roses on my sixteenth birthday. He took one long stem rose out of the bunch and laid it in my hand. We agreed on its beauty. Then he told me to close my hand tightly around the stem. To do this I could not avoid the prick of the thorn. Daddy told me roses with thorns are like relationships. He said never hold on too tight; let people have the room they need to be whom they were meant to be to themselves and to others. I didn’t get it right for years because I didn’t see the nuance. He also wanted me to understand that I had to give myself room and permission to become who I was meant to be before I could do the same for others.

Daddy encouraged me to see the good in me so I could begin to see the good in others. He taught me how to live a righteous life with the understanding that all my actions would have future consequences. Most importantly, Daddy taught me a lesson we can all learn and apply today. Allow yourself to be who you are. There is only one like you. You are a designer’s original. What you are put on this earth to do what no one else can do like you can. There is no need to compete with anyone but yourself to be the best you can be. Celebrate that. Don’t squash it.”

Are you Daddy’s Little Girl? Share you special Daddy lessons of encouragement with us.

I invite you to join the conversation. Take your seat at the table. This is your place.

Like, comment and share your thoughts.

    Until next time, remember,

• You are not alone.

• You are not your circumstances.

• You have everything within you to live a purpose-filled life.