{"id":3189,"date":"2017-09-08T17:52:13","date_gmt":"2017-09-08T17:52:13","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.fatherville.com\/?p=3189"},"modified":"2017-09-13T04:25:59","modified_gmt":"2017-09-13T04:25:59","slug":"what-your-daughter-really-longs-for","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/fatherville.com\/index.php\/2017\/09\/08\/what-your-daughter-really-longs-for\/","title":{"rendered":"What Your Daughter Really Longs For"},"content":{"rendered":"
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I wish you could sit in my counseling office, even for part of a day, because you\u2019d hear what I consistently hear from teenage girls and 20-something women.<\/p>\n

You\u2019d hear how often they doubt themselves, how often they fear a future without a boyfriend to love them back, how often they don\u2019t know how to express what\u2019s really going on inside so tears flow freely without words. You\u2019d hear how often they can\u2019t get their feet on the ground when their primary relationships are in turmoil, how often they feel they don\u2019t matter because they haven\u2019t yet figured out their purpose, and how often they wonder where God is at in the mix of the confusion and conflict, disappointments and delays, heartbreak and hopelessness.<\/p>\n

And if you were there with me, the two of us would actually realize that we were standing on sacred ground. For whenever someone invites us into their deepest, most vulnerable place–that place that is raw and real, where it\u2019s messy and complicated–we actually receive a gift. To be trusted at that level is an honor of unparalleled proportion.<\/p>\n

Dad, do you know how privileged you are when your daughter lets you know her at that depth? I guarantee that she wants to be known by you and it\u2019s up to you to create an atmosphere of acceptance where she feels safe enough to reveal her heart to you.<\/p>\n

It\u2019s in the context of that personal relationship that you will pour into your daughter\u2019s heart from the overflow in yours. And just in case she doesn\u2019t quite have the words to tell you what she needs, I\u2019ll do my best to say it for her.<\/p>\n

She longs for you to notice<\/strong> her.
\nShe longs for you to listen<\/strong> to her.
\nShe longs for you to affirm<\/strong> her.
\nShe longs to know<\/strong> that you believe she is worthy.
\nShe longs for you to never give up<\/strong> on her.
\nShe longs for you to be patient<\/strong> with her. (especially when you\u2019re struggling the most to do so)
\nShe longs for you to keep your promises<\/strong>.
\nShe longs for you to comfort<\/strong> her with your steady, solid, strong, masculine presence.
\nShe longs for you to validate<\/strong> her (even when she doesn\u2019t make sense to you).
\nShe longs for you to love<\/strong> her where she\u2019s at, flaws and all.
\nShe longs for you to tell<\/strong> her what you see when you look at her.
\nShe longs for you to express<\/strong> why you love her.
\nShe longs to hear<\/strong> that she\u2019s beautiful in your eyes.
\nShe longs for you to choose<\/strong> her even when everything else calls for your attention.
\nShe longs for you to pursue<\/strong> her even when she pushes you away for a season.
\nShe longs for you to give<\/strong> of yourself and your resources (which tangibly tells her she\u2019s valuable).
\nShe longs for you to humbly admit<\/strong> when you\u2019ve blown it and ask<\/strong> for forgiveness.
\nShe longs for you to be present<\/strong> and involved<\/strong> because it says that her life matters to you.<\/p>\n

The more you care about her longings, the more she will connect with them herself.<\/strong><\/p>\n

And the more she connects with her longings, the more she will thrive while saying, \u201call my longings lie open before you, O Lord.\u201d (Psalm 18:24).<\/p>\n

\n

Article contributed by Dr. Michelle Watson<\/p>\n

Dr. Watson has a clinical counseling practice in Portland, Oregon, and has served in that role for the past 20 years. She also has the privilege of being up close and personal with girls in their teens and 20\u2019s over the past 35+ years in such roles as camp counselor, mentor, teacher, and speaker. You can find out more about Dr. Watson on her website<\/a>. You can also listen to her on the Dad Whisperer Podcast<\/a>.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

I wish you could sit in my counseling office, even for part of a day, because you\u2019d hear what I consistently hear from teenage girls and 20-something women. You\u2019d hear how often they doubt themselves, how often they fear a future without a boyfriend to love them back, how often they don\u2019t know how to […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"give_campaign_id":0,"om_disable_all_campaigns":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[34],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-3189","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-dads-with-daughters"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/fatherville.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3189","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/fatherville.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/fatherville.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/fatherville.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/fatherville.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=3189"}],"version-history":[{"count":7,"href":"https:\/\/fatherville.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3189\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":3234,"href":"https:\/\/fatherville.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3189\/revisions\/3234"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/fatherville.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=3189"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/fatherville.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=3189"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/fatherville.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=3189"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}