My Little Helper

This morning, it was just the little girl and me (plus the baby of course).  And there wasn't much on our docket.  So we decided to bake and bake and bake.  We had a stack of ripe bananas so we made banana bread and then we prepped dinner.  As we went along it was so fun to talk to her and show her everything I was doing and why.  I love to do that with all of my kids but, it's just really special to teach her in that way.  It just is.

One of my favorite things about Elliana is her desire to accessorize herself in whatever way she chooses.  Some days it is bracelets, necklaces and pretty shoes.  Other days it is whatever shoes she can find in my closet.

Today, her chosen accessory was Daddy's beanie.

And everytime she puts something on, she says, "So pretty."  Except it comes out like this, "Soooo peritty Mommy.  So peritty."

So of course, once she donned the hat she beamed, "So peritty.  Show Daddy."  Isn't it amazing how innate that desire is for a little girl to be beautiful to her Dad?  Too bad Daddy was at work.  He would've melted.

I love, love, love having lots of boys.  They are so fun, rough, matter-of-fact and playful.  And in some respects, pretty straightforward.  I truthfully am so glad that God gave me so many of them.

But even so, I'm thankful God gave me one girl so that I could get a glimpse into what it means to raise a daughter.

I still look at her in wonder and pray that we'll bring her up to be graceful, loving, cheerful, and kind.  For every little girl wants to be beautiful.  But you can't be beautiful on the outside without the inside being beautiful.

It's a tall order to raise a girl in this day.  Everyday my husband sees the fall out of broken marriages and hard family situations all over the lives of his students.  The girls are especially heartbreaking.  We talk about it often for it can be discouraging to him.  It gives us even more motivation to try and set our own kids on the right path as best as we can.

Apart from Elliana knowing Christ, we want her to be confident, courageous and hard working.  I want her to know that we're behind her and that we think she can succeed at whatever she sets her mind to.  But we also want her to be confident about embracing her femininity and all that being a woman entails.  That includes the amazingly important tasks of being a Christian woman, a wife, a mother and a homemaker (whether you work outside the home or not, you're still a homemaker).  It takes an incredible amount of grace to pull all of these roles off well.  Grace, diligence, creativity and intelligence.  

And in moments like this morning, I definitely feel privileged to pass it all on.