You would think I would have gotten used to this by now.  The car rolling down the driveway.  Me standing on the porch waving as they disappear out of sight.  I have four daughters, and I have gone through this three times before.

The first one was the hardest, because I knew she wasn’t coming back.  The day before, I had just walked her down the aisle and given her away.  She wasn’t mine anymore.  My heart was ripped out.  It didn’t matter that she married a great guy, and that I was going to get grandkids

The next two weren’t any better.  One moving two states away for a great job, another rolling down the driveway with a brand new husband.

One of the greatest blessings God can give is children who are bonded to each other and with you in Christ.  The depths of love are unsearchable.  The bonds are deep and strong.  He empowers you to train them for great things – to be salt and light in a crooked and perverse generation.

But then – you don’t want to let them go.

Now my baby girl is 22 years old.  Only a father can understand the special bond that he has for his baby girl.  They occupy a secret place in the heart that is reserved only for them.

She has already done great things for Jesus.  People wonder why she is starting college at 22.

“Well,” she would say, ” that’s what happens when you devote 2 years of your life in Taiwan, teaching English and ministering Jesus to children .”

I didn’t like it when she went to Taiwan, either.  But here is the dilemma.  You raised them to do great things for God, you encouraged them to do great things for God, and now it’s time to go and do great things for God!  There’s only one problem.  I don’t want her to go.  What a miserable wretch I am.

I am so immensely proud of my girls.  God go with you.  Your generation is going to need you more than ever.

Dad