Dear Mady Jane, You are LOVED.

"And he told them the wonderful Story of God's Love -- God's Never Stopping, Never Giving Up, Unbreaking, Always and Forever Love."  [The Jesus Storybook Bible]

Dear Mady Jane,

I've been thinking about you quite a bit lately -- about my job as your parent, about the unbelievable amount of new things you are learning, about who you are at your very core (and why). You are five and a half (we know that "half" is oh so important). You have entered the world of Kindergarten. You are making friends on your own. You are buying lunch in the cafeteria. You are using words like vertices and investigation and circumference and gratitude. You are reading -- everything. Your rate of change is incalculable right now. It's crazy, really. And scary. SLOW DOWN, Child! I can't keep up, and you know I have a slight need to control. ;)

As my head spins and I try to do all the best things for you, I am constantly hoping that we can give you the best foundation for what God has for your future. Your future is b-r-i-g-h-t, girl. You are intelligent. You have enthusiasm. You love people. But most importantly, you know Jesus.

I know I fail often, but I have been repeatedly reminded lately that my parenting is an important piece of what could shape how you view God in the future -- the struggles you might have with faith or the things that will come easily because you've experienced them through us. Oh, how I pray the comparisons will be more than the contrasts. I know it is my job to provide you with an example of love -- "Never Stopping, Never Giving Up, Unbreaking, Always and Forever Love." I adore the way this description of God's love is repeated in your Storybook Bible. And I adore, even more, that you quote this portion every night from memory as we read.

Do not forget that love, Mady. I will try to show it to you as often as humanly possible, but, girl, I am just not quite good enough for you to experience the depth of love that you deserve. Please realize that this is the difference between us and God. He can do that. Perfectly. So when you doubt your awkward-middle-school self... when the high school hormones are flailing... when you question what you're supposed to be doing with your young adult life... when you (some far far away day) become a mother and feel completely inadequate... I pray you will hear an echo of your sweet five-and-a-half-year-old self and remember His "Never Stopping, Never Giving Up, Unbreaking, Always and Forever Love." Because that, Madelyn Jane, is His gift for you.

Jesus, thank you for your perfect love. Help me to be an example of that love. Help me to never stop, to never give up. Keep me from breaking, failing. And when my love does break and fail, help me to pick it back up, that it may be always and forever. Only through you.