What My Daughter is Teaching Me

stickers_together.jpg

One thing I looked forward to when Keri and I realized we were going to have our first child was the opportunity to teach our daughter and watch her learn new things.  Now that I’ve got two years under my belt, I have to say that I thoroughly enjoy being a dad.  I love having the opportunity to love, teach, and instruct my daughter as she grows.  I love that I get to have a part in paving the way for her to love and embrace Jesus as her Savior and Lord.

The thing I didn’t expect was to learn so much from my daughter.  Keri and I may be teaching Brynna her about colors, numbers, letters, and God, but God is using Brynna to teach me things every day too.  Here are some examples:

  • It’s a waste of time to worry too much about looking silly to other people.
  • Rather than putting stickers on your shirt or on paper, it’s much more fun to stick them on your hand, or foot, or face.
  • The world is an amazing place and full of wonder.

This last one has really impacted me.  For Brynna, almost everything is a cause for amazement: eating ice cream, seeing a friend, reading a book at bedtime, and playing in the sandbox.  Each of these things seems new and fresh to her – as if she’s experiencing them for the first time.

I want to be like my Brynna.  I want to be full of amazement about life, and I especially want to approach God that way.  I want to break free from the jaded cynicism that the years try to pile onto my heart as I progress through life.

I want to live a life full of love, passion, innocence, and amazement.  I want to live a life of abandon to my King.

Lots of good stuff to relearn… but I’ve got a great teacher.

4 thoughts on “What My Daughter is Teaching Me

  1. Howdy Kyle,
    I am glad that you were able to see the real me when we were playing frisbee golf. Your understanding and acceptance of me has helped me deal with my anger. But more importantly I love to read your blogs about what Brynna is teaching you. Because she is not only teaching you, those of us who read these blogs are being taught as well. God Bless my brother.
    Ben

  2. Ben,

    I’m thankful for the time we had together – especially the time to talk and play disc golf. (Nathan destroyed me the next couple of times we played.)

    Know that I accept you and know that no one is perfect (you’ve seen me in some of my finer moments as well), but I think we’ve got to be careful not to think of those times as being our “real” selves. According to Scripture, we’ve been made new in Christ. When we give way to our anger, frustrations, and flesh it’s like we’re picking up the old, dead self that was crucified with Jesus to carry it around for a few minutes.

    That’s one of the really amazing things about being a follower of Jesus – that our inner man is being transformed into His likeness.

    I love you, bro,
    Kyle

  3. Hello Love (this is Kyle’s wife writing:)
    Just wanted to chime in and say that G.K. Chesterton(influential English writer of the early 20th century for those not familiar)agrees with you completely. Below is a great quote from his writings that treats on the “childlike wonder” of God himself. The last sentence is an especially striking and beautiful thought in my opinion.

    “A child kicks his legs rhythmically through excess, not abscence, of life. Because children have abounding vitality, because they are in spirit fierce and free, therefore they want things repeated and unchanged. They always say, “Do it again”; and the grown up person does it again until he is nearly dead.

    For grown-up people are not strong enough to exult in monotony. But perhaps God is strong enough to exult in monotony. It is possible that God says every morning, “Do it again” to the sun; and every evening, “Do it again” to the moon. It may not be automatic necessity that makes all daisies alike, it may be that God makes every daisy separately, but has never got tired of making them.

    He has the eternal appetite of infancy; for we have sinned and grown old, and our Father is younger than we.”
    -G. K. Chesterton, Orthodoxy

Comments are closed.