Somewhere in the world today....

We have some of our dearest friends spending the week with us. We met them in PA in the same stage of life. We'd all just sold our homes, left our families, and moved to (what felt like to us) the big city where we knew no-one, to finish out our college education. We all lived in the married student housing where it kind of felt like the college days all over again - glorified dorm life, in a way, but we were all married and having babies! It really was super fun, and they will be lifelong friends.

Anyway...they have two little girls the ages of my Jesse and Ransom. They stepped out for a couple of hours one evening, so Kevy and I pretended that we were parents of a "big family." Overall, things went very smoothly. Completely outnumbered 5-1, there were no catastrophes, all got fed, and all were tucked into bed with relatively no misshap. We were impressed with ourselves!

After the big boys and the babies got settled down - I laid down with their little four year old daughter for a few minutes while I was tucking her in. I read her a story, we prayed together, she gave me a big hug and kiss, and then I just kind of laid there and watched her little face as she told me story after story. It was so tender and sweet, and she was just so animated and lovely. She really is darling, and it has been so much fun having little girls running around our place this week. She has handled herself well in this boy's world (although she told her Mama that though she would miss the boys, she was ready to be done with the rough and tough! Ha!)

Anyway, while I was laying beside her listening to all of her little stories, it hit me that somewhere out there, right now, there are - Lord willing - three little girls growing up with their Mommies and their Daddies who will marry my three little boys some day. I do think about it, and I often joke about it with my friends who have little girls, but tonight for some reason, it really struck me. While I was looking at her little face and laughing at her little mannerisms and animation, my heart just filled with such love for this little girl...and for whoever the Lord has out there that He is preparing for my boys.

While I don't have any daughters - and I maybe never will, someday I might get the chance to love three young women, and I need to be praying for them now. Little hearts are getting molded, little personalities are being developed, and I pray that someday my boys will have a marriage as wonderful as their Daddy and I - one where they are best friends, where my boys treat their wives with respect and tenderness, and one where their wives feel safe and secure, loved and honored. My boys saw this week, that they have to handle little girls differently than they handle each other. They need to be more sensitive, more gentle, and they need to be careful with their words and their actions.

Heavy stuff, really. Marriage is forever, and I want my boys to be students of their wives just as Kev is with me. Just as my heart is so full of love and protection for my boys, I got just a tiny taste of that love and tenderness for my future daughters-in-law who - somewhere in the world today - are running and playing and growing just as mine are.

And then my friend Lori sent me this song:

My little boys need godly wives, so hold onto Jesus little ones....