Dear Baby Girl: My Dream for You

Dear Baby Girl, 

   I have dreams for you. I have hopes for you. I want to give you a good life. I want you to be generous. This may be the greatest gift that you can give yourself. Giving of your money, things, time, talents...it blesses others and blesses you too. It makes you feel good inside your heart. That is God’s way of letting you know you are doing something right and good. 

   I want to you think about others. How they think, what they must be feeling. Be compassionate, be loving, be like Jesus. Love like Jesus. Sometime as adults we have shallow philosophies. We think that we cannot like or love someone who thinks differently than us. We shy away from those who are look or act differently.  We sometimes forget that God created all people and Jesus asked us to reach them with His love. Baby Girl, we can still love those people with the love of Jesus. We do not have to agree with them, or participate but it is not our job to punish them. Show them kindness, show them love, show them Jesus. 

  I want you to be compassionate. I want your heart to be big. I want you to consider others. I want you to take nothing for granted for it all can go away at any moment. 

  When you have nothing, I want you to be thankful. When you have plenty, I want you to be thankful. Remember that there is always someone who has less than you have, who hurts more than you hurt, who struggles more than you struggle. Pray for them and have a thankful heart. 

  I want you to be happy. A happy heart can be found by being generous and thankful. It can be found by loving others and taking care of them. It can be found by sharing Jesus. It can also be found by being content. Baby Girl, this is a hard one. Contentment is becoming a lost state. We always want more, want bigger, want better. That can be a great thing when striving to meet a goal. It can be a detrimental thing when we put our wants before others needs. Or when we constantly feel sad and restless because we are never satisfied with what we have. We never enjoy today because we are too busy waiting for tomorrow to get here. Take time to stop and be happy with today, with a moment. Even when your circumstance is not ideal or even very hard, find something to be content with. Something that satisfies you. Be patient in those times, because I promise it is a small part of your journey. Follow God and keep Him with you and He will always see you through. You can have a happy heart even when things seem to be falling down around you. It is very much a choice. Something that has to be worked at or strived for sometimes. Sometimes it is very easy to be content, everything seems right in your world. Other times you will struggle to find one thing that you can be happy about. Keep looking, it is there. 

  I want you to smile. A smile says so much about you. It says so much to other people. A genuine smile that is filled with compassion and hope and love can be that one thing in someone’s life that gets them through the day, that gives them hope. Baby girl, a smile is free but is priceless as well. 

I want you to have dreams and goals and work hard to meet them. I want you to find joy in the journey. I want you have a sense of accomplishment. I want you to succeed. But I also want you to fail. As hard as that is for me to say, the truth is there will be things in life that are hard for you, things that you will not be good at, things that hurt. You practice more, fight harder, decide not to give up. You learn through failure. You learn compassion and empathy from your experiences. Your failures do not have to define you, but it is up to you to decide that. I want you to choose to let them make you better. 

  I want you stand up for those who cannot stand up for themselves. I want you to strive to be selfless. I want you to serve others. 

  I want you to know who you are in Christ. He created you; He has plans for you. Tune in to Him. Follow Him. Love Him. Love Him more than you love Daddy and me. Love Him more than you (will) love your husband. Know His word. Believe it. Share it. Stand up for Him. Loving Him will make all the other things easier, natural. 

  Baby Girl, people will take advantage of your generosity. Use your discernment, but keep giving. Your compassion may cause you pain. You may become a bully’s target after standing up for a friend. Don’t let that hinder your kind heart. Not everybody is going to like you, and you will not understand why. Don’t worry about it. Remember who you are in Christ. There is nobody in this world that owes you anything. Remember that. Be thankful for even the little things. Work hard for the things that you want. Smile and laugh. It is good for your soul and for others. Go on adventures, read as much as you can, pay for a stranger’s coffee, dance in the rain, and love Baby Girl. Love, love, love. It is truly the greatest gift you can give. 

I Love you more than you can fathom, 

Love,

Mommy