A Letter to My Daughter

I wanted to take a little different approach today.  As I write this letter to my daughter, I hope you read this and understand that whether you are a boy or girl, you have a Father in Heaven who loves you very dearly.  I will attempt to write from my heart to Katherine's but know that nothing I can put on this blog will come near expressing the Father's love for you.  He loves you very dearly and I do too.  I hope you hear a little of Him in this.

Dear Katherine,

I want to start this letter by telling you what a beautiful little girl you are.  I tell you this often because it's true and just comes naturally out of my heart but I also tell you this because I want you to know how special you really are.  I want you to hear it from me so that you won't have to try to find this type of affirmation from some other boy.

Your smile constantly warms my heart.  Sunday, it made my day to carry you out to the car.  Right now, you are still small enough for me to do that but I know the time is coming when you will out grow it.  I am also constantly amazed by you.  I have also told you many times that you are one of the smartest little girls I have ever met.  How you know so much at 7 years old is a mystery to me.  You are kind, loving, compassionate, strong willed, intelligent, athletic, smart, quick, outgoing, friendly and beautiful all rolled into one little girl.  You are all that I could have ever asked for in a daughter and so so much more.

You say things that just make me laugh.  I will never forget you telling me that you wanted to run away to another country but that you couldn't because you wanted to take your bible and they would kill you if they caught you with it.  You were only about 4 at the time and it was so precious.  Of course, I had to talk to David (her oldest brother) about how he filled you with all that stuff but it was one of the little memories I will always cherish.

I also love your independent spirit.  It was only a couple of weeks ago that I made you take a roller skating lesson for David's birthday.  I was helping you with your skates and you kept telling me that you didn't need a lesson and that you could already skate.  I just smiled (not believing you - big mistake) and told you to go get in line for the lesson.  As I finished helping your friend Kylie get her skates on and turned around, I was shocked to find you roller skating all over the floor minding your own business.  The best thing about that experience was as I left the rink, you skated over to say good bye and I picked you up to give you a hug.  With the biggest sparkle in your eye and the warmest smile, you leaned over and whispered in my ear, "Dad, I told you I could roller skate!"  It makes me smile just thinking about it.

Many people have said that you will be a handful when you get a little older but I don't see it exactly that way.  I know that you are going to be as amazing as an adult as you are as a child.  I don't want you to grow up any time soon (even though I can't stop it) but I do look forward to watching you as an adult.  I know you will be successful at anything you do.

Now sweetheart, I want to talk about something else.  There are times in your life when you do things wrong.  Sometimes I have to discipline you for them and that's OK.  Sometimes they really make me laugh.  What I want you to understand is that if you make a mistake it's fine.  I make mistakes every day.  Sometimes they just happen.  I don't want you to get down on yourself when you do something wrong.  I am not going to lie to you and tell you that there is no right or wrong.  That's not true.  But I do want you to know that even if you do something wrong, it doesn't change what an amazing, wonderful, and truly great person you are.  Nothing can change that.  I have seen you come down pretty hard on yourself when you make a mistake and sometimes that's not good.

Here's what I want you to do if you make a mistake.  Admit it, ask for forgiveness, forgive yourself and try not to do it again.  But no matter what you do, my love for you will never change.  When I first held you, it was one of the greatest days of my life and I was totally speechless.  I was completely in love with this little baby in my arms.  Every corner of my heart was filled with love for you.  Over the last seven years, something has happened that I didn't think was possible.  My love for you has grown.  You know that God gave us His son Jesus to take the punishment for our sins.  One of the great things about God is that He didn't stop giving with Jesus.  He gave you to me.  You are so special to me and I am so proud of the little lady you are becoming.

You are so beautiful and I love you with all my heart.

Dad

An that's a letter from the Minion

Another About Me

Periodically I ask people on Facebook to send me questions that they would like me to answer.  Many of them ones that I have answered before but I don't mind answering them again so here goes.

HG - Do you write bible stuff?  Actually, I started another blog called, "The Minion's Bible Stories."  A few people have heard me tell stories and seemed really interested so I started trying to put many of the bible stories I heard as a child in words that young people today would understand.  My goal is to preserve the message but hopefully make it a little more understandable.  If you read this blog, it is also my sincere hope that you see Jesus in all that I write.

CH - What made you want to start this Minion business?  I get this question every time I do one of these posts and I always enjoy answering it.  There was a point in the not to distant past that I felt frustrated at not being able to express myself.  So I started a blog as a place to just free think on "paper."  My first blog was about books.  Some I liked and some I didn't  so I wrote about them.  My next blog was specifically for my uncle.  It compared fishing to golf.  I did it just to have fun with him.  Then something truly life changing happened.  The Lord began to show me a different way to look at people and I will never be the same.  I wrote a blog called, "The Box - Do You Have the Courage to Open It?"  See God showed me that everyone is a gift from him to the world and that each one of us has certain unique and amazing qualities inside of us.

After I wrote that, a friend of mine and I were talking and she gave me another idea for a blog.  After I wrote a few of them, I started the fan page on Facebook because I didn't want all of my friends to see a post on their wall every time I wrote a blog.  For some reason, I still can't totally grasp, people I didn't know started liking my fan page and I continued to write.  That was almost five months ago.  I continue to be shocked at the growth of this blog.

HG - What's your favorite animal? - I guess I would have to say dogs but I like a lot of animals.

TH & OR - What is your favorite color? - Blue I guess.

JN - Why do you guys always talk with the b going first? - I think this is a reference to Despicable Me.  I am not sure the answer to the question.  I used a picture of a minion from the movie because I thought it was cool but I am not associated with the movie.

CS - Which minion are you? - Like I said, I'm not associated with the movie so I guess I'm not any particular minion.

AR and BG - Will there be a Despicable Me 2? - I don't know but I hope so.  The first one was a good movie.

JH - Is there a Minion for every opinion? - I don't think so.  It's just me mostly and my friend DD helps me.

SM - What is the minion's catch phrase? - I don't know about the ones from the movie.  I don't think I have one.

EF - Who makes the little overalls? - Good question but I don't know.

CB - Where are the girl minions? - I don't know.

CB - Do you go to the bathroom and eat stuff? - Yup.

MJ and LM - Why are you called the Minion? Why did you decide to name your blog the Opinion of the Minion?  - Well that's sort of a long story so I will try to keep it short and explain.  I was in Houston, TX in February with some friends at an event.  We were supposed to show up the next morning to tear down the tent.  I was there but some of my friends weren't.  The guy we were helping asked where the minions were?  I thought this was funny and then one day, I made a comment about starting a blog called, "The Opinion of the Minion" and it just kind of stuck.

DP - How do I get minions of my own? - I get asked this a lot and unfortunately, I don't know.

SR - When can you come live with me?  lol  I love the minion!! - Thank you SR.  I really appreciate the encouragement.

LB - Will you do my laundry?  Nope.  I have enough work doing my own.  :-)

BD - Do you have a pet?  What state do you live in? - Yes I have a dog that I got from a rescue.  Her name is Clara Belle and she is about 4 years old.  She is big, white and sort of looks like a polar bear.  I live in Texas.

JS - Are you a genetic science experiment? - I don't think so.

AC - Umm?  Well are you famous? - I don't think so.

SK - CL is right.  I do speak English but it was a good question because many of the Internet browsers will translate languages for you.

AS - Have you ever been on a date? - Yup.

I guess that's it for this rendition of The Opinion of the Minion.