My dear Daughter,

You are barely three years old now and already I worry about the world you will have to face in the future. Actually, I’ve been worrying since you were in the womb. 

I worry about how you will keep yourself pure in a world that is increasingly sexually confused, and celebrates the flesh and all the pleasures that come with it. I fear I won’t be able to protect you, and that you will choose your own way and I will have no choice but to let you suffer the consequences of it. 

My dear child, you are so beautiful. Everything about you.

From day one, I declared you the most beautiful baby in the world, and you still are to me. I love everything about you – your wavy black thick hair that I love to smell, your lush red lips, your perfect eyebrows, and huge eyes full of wonder and life. I can’t imagine any part of you being defiled.

There’s this story going around about how renowned boxed Muhammad Ali gently chided his daughter, Hana, for dressing in a manner that was not too modest. 

From day one, I declared you the most beautiful baby in the world, and you still are to me. I love everything about you.

He told her: “Hana, everything that God made valuable in the world is covered and hard to get to. Where do you find diamonds? Deep down in the ground, covered and protected. Where do you find pearls? Deep down at the bottom of the ocean, covered up and protected in a beautiful shell. Where do you find gold? Way down in the mine, covered over with layers and layers of rock. You’ve got to work hard to get to them.”

“Your body is sacred. You’re far more precious than diamonds and pearls, and you should be covered, too.”

I can’t put it any better than that. You are so precious. I carried you for 40 weeks and five days, went through long, painful labour to birth you – 17 hours in hard labour with tears – and nurtured your body with milk from my own, every day, for more than two years and four months.

I hope you never feel you have to cheapen yourself.

That you never have to flaunt your assets and figure in order to receive love and affirmation from someone else, or indulge in earthly passions that will never satisfy. 

My child, I don’t have to spell it out here, but God’s way always brings life and love and hope, and to turn away from it is death. I had to learn this myself the hard way, but I pray you will be spared the grief of following your own desires. 

I really don’t know how I can better express all that is in my heart as I think of you. Only to say that I love you very much, with every bone in my being, and I will never abandon you.

The temptations you will face in this world will be greater than what your grandparents faced, or what I faced in my generation. I will do my best to bring you up to know what is right and wrong, but ultimately, it is up to you to choose the true and narrow path. I’m leaving you in God’s hands. 

Never seek true love in the arms of a man, for he will surely disappoint. Yet, whoever you marry, may you always see the goodness in him, and not just the flaws, and always bring whatever grievances and hurts you have to the Lord, for he hears the prayers of a faithful Wife.

Always remember what you’re worth – that you are worth waiting for – and you don’t have to give yourself over wholly in order to receive true love.

Sex within the confines of marriage between a man and a woman is beautiful, as God designed it to be, and anything outside of that is ugly and repulsive, a distortion or perversion, and brings shame and ultimately death. 

You won’t be perfect, but I have to tell you these things anyway. And I trust God will keep you safe from harm because I cannot be with you all the time, especially when you’re older. His grace is sufficient and Jesus’ work on the cross is powerful enough to cover our sins and failings, washing us clean once again. 

I really don’t know how I can better express all that is in my heart as I think of you. Only to say that I love you very much, with every bone in my being, and I will never abandon you even though I discipline you and I’m imperfect. I pray I can take care of you until you become a Mother yourself. And the mothering won’t stop there. 

I love you more than you will ever know. 

Love,
Mom