Recently, I re-heard the song "Daughters" by John Mayer and thought, "I could use that for a blog!" So here I am writing about daughters.

The chorus has always been intriguing to me. "Fathers be good to your daughters, Daughters will love like you do, Girls become lovers who turn into mothers, So mothers be good to your daughters too."

Now I know his (John Mayer) reason for writing this song was from a worldly standpoint, but it does make sense that if fathers and mothers are good to their daughters then their daughters will be good to their husbands and children. (Of course, the same is true with sons, except they become husbands and fathers and guys have a different psyche than girls. But that's a different story and song for another day.) Before I go any further, I've posted the lyrics to the rest of this song for those who are like me and can't stand to go on without reading all the words.

Daughters
by John Mayer
(www.lyrics.com)

I know a girl
She puts the color inside of my world
She's just like a maze
Where all of the walls all continually change
And I've done all I can
To stand on her steps with my heart in my hands
Now I'm starting to see
Maybe it's got nothing to do with me

Fathers be good to your daughters
Daughters will love like you do
Girls become lovers who turn into mothers
So mothers be good to your daughters too

Oh, you see that skin?
It's the same she's been standing in
Since the day she saw him walking away
Now she's left
Cleaning up the mess he made

Fathers be good to your daughters
Daughters will love like you do
Girls become lovers who turn into mothers
So mothers be good to your daughters too

Boys, you can break
You'll find out how much they can take
Boys will be strong
And boys soldier on
But boys would be gone without warmth from
A woman's good, good heart

On behalf of every man
Looking out for every girl
You are the god and the weight of her world

So fathers be good to your daughters
Daughters will love like you do
Girls become lovers who turn into mothers
So mothers be good to your daughters, too
So mothers be good to your daughters, too
So mothers be good to your daughters, too


So what does this song have to do with us? Well, it depends on where you are in life. You may be the father or the mother. You may be the daughter and/or the wife. You may the guy who loves the girl. Whoever you are or whatever role you play in life, there's one thread that links us together - we all need a father who loves us. If this were a perfect world, all fathers would love their daughters and teach their daughters how to love and be loved. But we all know that this is not a perfect world. So what can we do about it?

Number one, of course, is be good to our daughters. I honestly believe that some people do not know what that means. If you look around, there are girls who have everything they desire, girls who have nothing, and girls in between who are all looking for the same thing. They want the approval and/or acceptance of their father, but their father doesn't give it to them. Why? Fathers are often too consumed with their own desires or conquests to notice what's going on in the lives of their daughters. (Believe it or not, boys are looking for that same approval and/or acceptance from their father and without it, they feel incomplete.) Girls are also looking for nurturing from their mother, but that's not all they need from her. Daughters need a mother who honors and respects their father. Daughters need a father who loves their mother. They NEED to see their parents together - working, loving, laughing, playing, being together.

If you are like me, you don't have a daughter. However, I do have nieces and friends with daughters. Can I not be good to them? Can I not share some of the love that has been passed down to me? Can I not show them that there are husbands and wives out there who truly love each other and that their world is okay?

There are so many little girls who just want to be loved by their father and they desperately seek for that love wherever they can find it. Can we not give them just a little piece of that love?

What else can we do to help in this imperfect world? We can be good to our sons. We can teach them how to love and be loved. We can teach them the difference between themselves and the girl that they will marry someday. They need to know that girls don't break - they are crushed. Yes, girls grow up and become strong women who bear much responsibility, but even strong women who are not cherished can be crushed. Our sons need to know how to cherish their mother, then their wife, then their daughter (or any other little girl that God brings into their life).

Finally, we can introduce them to our Heavenly Father - the only One Who is a perfect Father. Since so many daughters grow up with fathers who aren't good to them or who leave them behind, we desperately need to show them a Father Who will cherish them all the time and Who will never leave them behind. Let me rephrase that. We desperately need to show them the Father Who has always cherished them and Who has never left them behind. We need to teach them that the approval and acceptance they are seeking can be found in God. II Corinthians 6:18 says, "I will be a Father to you, and you will be my sons and daughters, says the Lord Almighty." (NIV)