Bragging on my daughter

Many of you may have caught on, but in case you didn't, you'll note that even though I talk about my kids a lot I quite deliberately never mention their names online. When they are old enough to make their own decision about disclosing their identities in such a public forum, I'll leave it up to them, but for now the overprotective father instincts kick in.

However, most people who have followed the ministry for some time probably know that I have a 5 year old daughter and a 2 month old son. Well, I took my daughter to a friend's birthday party this weekend, and she did something that I simply have to shout out to the world as a proud papa.

The kids were playing a couple of games. The winner of the games got a prize. There was no prize for second place. The first game was musical chairs, and my daughter finished somewhere around the middle of the pack (and was quite distraught when she was eliminated). The second game was a limbo contest. They weren't actually requiring the kids to bend backwards, just get under the pole without touching either the ground or the pole. My daughter had somewhat of an advantage with this contest because she was one of the smallest children there. In the end it came down to her and a boy who was probably 1-2 years older than her.

All of the kids who had been eliminated were still gathered around the limbo pole watching the contest. The pole had gotten pretty darn low by this time (low enough that my bad back ached just thinking about trying to get under it) and my daugher made her attempt to get through. One of the kids said that her head hit the pole as she went underneath. All of the other kids gathered round said she didn't. The poor mother of the child whose party it was (who was acting as judge) didn't know what to do. However, the kids who were arguing in my daughter's favor seemed to be winning the day and Madam Judge was about to let Sarah go again.

At this time, my precious little 5 year old girl walks up to me and says, "Daddy, my head did touch the pole." I tell people all the time that I actually have a pretty honest little girl, but when they hear she is 5 then tend not to believe me. In this case, she knew that by telling me the truth she was going to lose the contest. And believe me, she really wanted the prize (she had seen the winner of musical chairs get a prize and was quite upset that she didn't get one). We told the judge that her head struck the pole and the little boy won the contest. At that point I told my daughter that I was more proud of her for telling the truth than I would have been if she had won 100 contests.

I'm under no illusions that my daughter isn't going to lie to me to get her way in the future, but for this one moment a father couldn't be prouder. God bless everyone.