Milestones: First

16 years and seven months ago she became first. My first daughter. My first true love. My first glimpse into what it was like to see a little piece of me in something so miraculous. My first true test of faith. My first. 11 years ago she became my first. My first to go off to school. My first on her first day of school. Today: Her first. Her last. Her first day of the last year of school. How quickly time has flown by.

How many accomplishments and struggles. How many books... seriously, how many? I never thought this day would come so quickly. That time would go by so fast. I am so proud of her. Proud of the advantage that she has. The advantage of having a personal relationship with Christ, and a strong one at that. I spent my senior year pregnant with her. Recovering from the consequences of rebellion , broken hearted, scared. By the grace of God (and a father who loved me...enough to encourage me to not take my child's life) I gave birth to my daughter. I remember kneeling at the altar, "telling" God that I would keep this child but He would have to take care of her.

Oh, and He has... He has been so faithful to her. His name has not only been written on her heart. It has been the song and the cry of her heart. She is wholly and completely God's. At times I think she questions her testimony, somehow feeling as thought she has less to offer, or that somehow she doesn't have an amazing show of what God has done. But rather, the decisions she has made and her commitment to Christ is the show of what God has done. Her life is a testimony to God's faithfulness. Oh how He loves her, and how she loves Him. First... there are lots of firsts in the last 16 years and seven months, but the biggest first is the relationship between Father and daughter.

How He Loves Us

He is jealous for me
Love's like a hurricane,
I am a tree
Bending beneath the weight of
His wind and mercy
When all of a sudden, I am unaware of these afflictions eclipsed by glory
and I realize just how beautiful You are and how great your affections are for me.


Oh, how He loves us so
Oh, how He loves us
How He loves us so.


Yeah, He loves us
Oh, how He loves us
Oh, how He loves us
Oh, how He loves.


We are His portion and
He is our prize,
Drawn to redemption
by the grace in His eyes
If grace is an ocean, we're all sinking
So heaven meets earth like a sloppy wet kiss and my heart turns
violently inside of my chest
I don't have time to maintain these regrets when I think about the way


He loves us,
Oh, how He loves us
Oh, how He loves us
OH, how He loves