Daughters

This week, I have officially admitted to myself that I love John Mayer. Two years ago, I would have been embarrassed to profess a tendency to liking anything too conventional, but today, as I'm making a new mix cd, I really want to include songs by Train, Dido, John Mayer, 3 Doors Down, and Shania Twain. I realize that if I like the songs and insist on only selecting songs by Gillian Welch, Ben Kweller, and the Idiot Pilots only because they might be more independent and less pop...well, then, I'm lying to myself and slipping into non-conformist elitism.

So this morning, I am not an elitist, and I'm telling you that I think John Mayer's song "Daughters" is amazing. You can listen to it here.
The chorus is--
Fathers, be good to your daughters.
Daughters will love like you do.
Girls become lovers who turn into mothers
So mothers be good to your daughters too.

On Monday at "The Mud Hut Christmas Party" I shared a testimony/sermonette, and I was joined by one of my female student leaders, who also shared the story of her faith journey. It was wonderful to share those moments with her, and afterwards, her mother embraced me and called me "Daughter." Sometimes I feel a bit like a more grown-up version of her daughter, and it was certainly affirming to be recognized by her.

And I thought about what John Mayer was saying--and really, I think that so many of the interactions I have with students have so little to do with me--and so much more to do with the families from which they come. For all of my girls, John's song makes me want to stand beneath the windows of their homes singing it up to their parents, as a prayer for them--that they will be powerfully reminded that they are stewards of God's kids. They have been entrusted! What a load of responsibility--shaping young people into who they will become...and parents have the ability to teach kids how to love well or how to love poorly.

I have had several moments of brokenness in the past weeks, and I think that so much of my ability to persevere through it is that I have been taught how to love well. By my parents, who have shown that love requires as much commitment and perseverence as it does respect and passion, by my friends, who always have the ability to speak to me in truth and are endlessly full of affirmation and comfort, and by my Lord, who is amazingly more than we could ever even want Him to be.