What I Want For My Daughters

by Bryan Gibson

My wife and I have two daughters, Alli, age 12, and Leah, age 9. Like most fathers, I’ve done some thinking about what the future holds for my daughters. Here are some things I want for my girls, things I believe God wants for them, too.

I want my daughters to be beautiful on the inside. It’s not that I want them to neglect their outward appearance; some things are just far more important. I want them to be clothed with “strength and honor” (Proverbs 31:25), with a “meek and quiet spirit” (1 Peter 3:3-5), with the kind of beauty that never fades (Proverbs 31:30; 1 Peter 3:4). I see in the New Testament many qualities I would love for my daughters to have—poor in spirit, meek, merciful, compassionate, tenderhearted, forgiving, kind, longsuffering, pure in heart, patient. I want them to hunger and thirst after righteousness; to mourn when they sin; to learn to rejoice, even in the midst of difficult times; to learn what it means to be truly content. In short, I want them to be like Christ, which should be the goal of every faithful Christian.

I want them to marry faithful Christians. I want this, partly, for selfish reasons. I want my daughters to be treated well, and if they marry faithful Christians, they will be. They will have unselfish husbands (Philippians 2:3-4), who love them as Christ loves the church (Ephesians 5:25), husbands who love them “in word and in deed” (1 John 3:16-18). But there are other reasons—I want them to marry someone with whom they can pray; someone who will want the same things for the children they do; someone with whom they can be fellow-workers in the kingdom of God, like Aquila and Priscilla (Acts 18:24-26; 1 Cor. 16:19; Rom. 16:3-4).

I want them to be good wives—submissive to their husbands (Ephesians 5:22-24, 33), looking out for their interests as well as their own (Phil. 2:3-4), loving them in word and in deed (1 John 3:18), and doing them good as long as they live (Proverbs 31:12).

I want them to be good mothers, to see the importance God places on bringing up children (1 Tim. 2:11-15). I want them to be like the virtuous woman of Proverbs 31, who was very attentive to her children’s needs; like Hannah, who said of her son Samuel, “I will give him to the Lord all the days of his life” (1 Sam. 1:11); like Eunice, who taught her son Timothy the Scriptures from childhood (2 Tim. 1:5; 3:14-15).

I want them to be ready to do good for others. I want them to be like the virtuous woman who “extends her hands to the poor” and “reaches out her hands to the needy” (Prov. 31:20); like Dorcas, who was “full of good works and charitable deeds” (Acts 9:36); like Phoebe, who was “a helper of many” (Romans 16:1-2). When they reach old age, I want it to be said of them that they have “diligently followed every good work” (1 Timothy 5:10).

Finally, I want my daughters (as well as my sons) to go to heaven. If they can do the things mentioned in this article, they will be well on their way.