She's Ten Years Old

On Wednesday, February 25th, our daughter, Kate, will turn 10. She has informed her mother and me that being in the “double digits” is a big deal. We have no reason to doubt her nor a desire to calm her enthusiasm. Being 10 is indeed a big deal. I am within 6 months of having been in my current pastorate for 10 years. Ten years is a decade. I have lived four decades plus. My wife and I have been married two decades plus (obviously my wife was very young when we married).

So our daughter, our baby girl is 10. I recall the day we dedicated her in our church in Prestonsburg, Kentucky. I have a picture of her being held by the girl for whom we named our daughter. I treasure that picture as I do hundreds of others we have taken through the years. The picture above was taken the day she was baptized; a birthday of another sort if you will.

I have a picture on my desk, and in my mind as well, of her older brother holding her for the first time in the hospital room. Then there’s the picture that I will treasure of her waving as she is riding the old red tractor with her Papa. She was afraid of the tractor until that day when she agreed to ride with Papa.

There are many more pictures etched in my memory in, what has been for me, ten short years. There are lessons as well that I have learned in these years. I can’t fix her hair quite like her mother can, though I can put it in a pretty neat ponytail. I can’t fix poached eggs like her Papa did or play checkers using Mama’s rules. But I can tickle her nearly as good as I could when she was an infant and I still get a chuckle from the whole affair.
I have learned that little girls look at themselves in mirrors differently than dads look at themselves in the mirrors.

This weekend we will celebrate with a girls night at the movies—popcorn, red carpet, sodas, and friends. It will be a special evening. I suspect my major role will be to hold the door, fix the popcorn, keep big brother out of the way and generally do whatever else I may be asked. But that will be OK. I’ll be with her and will remember wonderful times throughout those ten years.

Then in a quiet moment of my own, I will thank God for the gift I call Kate.

She is ten years old and has a lifetime yet to look forward to.

Tommy