Strength and Resilience

I watch her sleep. So sweet, so perfect, so innocent.



Tracing my finger along her chubby arms, and rolling thighs, and plump cheeks…my chest tightens at the thought of something.



One day…she’s going to get hurt.

Yes there will be the scraped knee, bumped head, busted lip kind of hurt. I know how to fix those. I know those heal.

It’s the other kind.

She’s going to go to school. And maybe come home crying because she wasn’t picked to play on the playground, or she overheard some girls talking about her, or the boy she likes doesn’t even know her name. What if she feels like she’s not good enough? Or she feels too tall, too awkward? What if she doesn’t feel pretty enough, or feels like she never says the right thing? What if she puts her all into something, and she doesn’t get chosen, she doesn’t win?

I pray that God grants me the wisdom to guide her. To protect that sweet, perfect, innocent heart.

I wonder though. Will she take after me and her strength and sense-of-self will slowly build and mature through every experience, heartbreaking and joyous, and through the safe haven of a loving family? Will she not see her strength until she’s looking back from the other side?

Or will she take after her father, who seemed to be born with a strength and resilience that, even at a young age, guided him and helped him rise above adversity?

Maybe she’ll fall somewhere in between; the solid strength of her father, but the sensitivity to be comforted in the arms of her daddy and me. We will hold her and dry her tears. We will pray together. We will remind her that her Maker delights in her; she was created in His image. That her family adores her and she is fiercely loved. I will let her know that birds of sorrow will pass over her head but she can choose to not let them build a nest in her hair, because tomorrow is a new day.

Then I will close her bedroom door and I will probably cry…because my little girl was hurt.

Until then, I will continue to pray for her strength; for good and loving friends to be placed in her path, and that she will always know how fiercely she is loved.

Now back to just watching her sleep…



And I pray that you and all God's holy people will have the power to understand the greatness of Christ's love. I pray that you can understand how wide and how long and how high and how deep that love is. Christ's love is greater than any person can ever know. But I pray that you will be able to know that love. Then you can be filled with the fullness of God.

Ephesians 3:18-19