Father's Eyes

I was a big Amy Grant fan when I was a teen. Back before her affair and ultimate divorce she had some deeply meaningful songs. One of my favorites was Father's Eyes which was actually written by her then husband, Gary Chapman. The words are as follows:

I may not be every mother's dream for her little girl

And my face may not grace the mind of everyone in the world

But that's all right, as long as I can have one wish I pray

When people look inside my life, I want to hear them say

She's got her Father's Eyes
Her Father's Eyes

Eyes that find the good in things
When good is not around

Eyes that find the source of help
When help just can't be found

Eyes full of compassion
Seeing every pain
Knowing what you're going through
And feeling it the same

Just like my Father's Eyes
My Father's Eyes
My Father's Eyes
Just like my Father's Eyes

And on that day when we will pay
For all the deeds we have done
Good and bad they'll all be had
To see by everyone

And when you're called to stand and tell Just what you saw in me
More than anything I know
I want your words to be

She had her Father's Eyes
Her Father's Eyes

Eyes that found the good in things
When good was not around

Eyes that found the source of help
When help would not be found

Eyes full of compassion
Seeing every pain
Knowing what you're going through
And feeling it the same

Just like my Father's Eyes
My Father's Eyes
My Father's Eyes
Just like my Father's Eyes

I was reminded of this song yesterday because my daughter definitely has the Father's eyes. She IS my dream for a daughter and she is beautiful inside and out. I have to tell you how proud I am of (and inspired by) her genuine, selfless love. Yesterday were two examples that stand out and shout at me how amazing her heart for others is.

The first example needs some background.  Her (Christian) high school has had pro-life events all week and part of that has been a baby bottle coin drive. Her Honors English teacher the day before had been giving the class a hard time about how little they had contributed to the coin drive.  She spent some time lecturing them about giving to this worthy cause and said she knew they all had loose change they could contribute. So my daughter came home and said she needed to bring coins. This coin drive was already on my radar and so I gathered a bag of coins for her to donate. At the end of the day I asked her whether her teacher had been happy about her contribution and she told me that she actually had waited outside the classroom and gave a handful of coins to every person who went in the door so that every single classmate contributed something.  This endeared her entire class to their teacher who told them they were her new favorite class. And my daughter would NOT let anyone tell her teacher where all the coins came from. She was giddy as she told me all about how the teacher had been so happy with the entire class.

The second story also needs a little explanation. My daughter has friends who are in the school play (Pride and Prejudice this year). She wanted to go to the play to support her friends and asked me to buy a bouquet of flowers so she could give 1 flower to each friend in the cast. She wanted all the same type of flower so I found a bouquet of a dozen roses that were discounted to just over $5 and she brought those to the play. A dozen roses were more flowers than she needed so I just thought she would keep what she didn’t give away because she loves having fresh flowers in her room. But when I picked her up from the play, she only had a few left and she told me that she had 2 other friends in the audience with her who hadn’t brought flowers so she gave a couple of roses to each of them so they would have flowers to give to their cast-member friends as well. Such a sweet gesture of friendship and love!

My daughter is always finding new ways to spread the love of Jesus and it just thrills my heart and soul to watch!