I have a daughter who spends the majority of her time with her mother and at times it has been very difficult to bond and relate to her since her life is so very different from that of my own and my boys. My daughter spends the majority of her time at home watching television, secular movies made for young girls and playing with her Barby dolls. Because of this, her 3 brothers including the 2 that live with me were having a difficult time relating to her to the point that she began to feel unloved and rejected. One day while wanting to watch a Barby movie, the boys all protested and rained insult after insult upon the fact that Barby was horrifically dumb. As the tears began to flow from my daughter's eyes, the Lord challenged me right there and then to become a missionary unto my daughter....that's right, a missionary to my daughter.
You see, when Christian missionaries seriously prepare to reach a lost tribe, culture or people, they go through great lengths to study their customs and beliefs. They do not walk into people's lives and begin telling them they're wrong, dumb or incorrect. Instead, missionaries meet people where they're at as Christ did. In other words, God let me know that I was about to go where I'd never gone before...I was about to become Barby's # 1 fan - for my daughter's sake ;) And I was going to drag my boys along with me.
When I obeyed the Lord in this way, amazing things began to happen. All of us boys learned that there were actually Biblical principals in every Barby movie. Some of the story lines were even kind of interesting. What was really amazing though, is that when we all validated my daughter and her interests, she wasn't so alone anymore, and Barby wasn't as important as she'd thought. My daughter began to experience what she'd longed for in the Barby movies; what it felt like to be a real life Princes through the eyes of her brothers and her Dad.
Validating a little life can be a Big BIG Thing :)
Yes Max, you have some very lucky and blessed children. You're not just a dad, you're a true gentleman and a very knowledgable man of God. I'm blessed to call you a friend.
