Azzi, today was your due date. Today was the day we thought you were supposed to show up, but most of the time as you will see, our thoughts, ideas, and plans don't line up with God's. I thought it interesting that today, the day of your due date, another young girl will be crowned Miss Mississippi for the 51st time. Having spent my fair share of time in the south (7 years) I got to see first hand the damaging effects of what this does to young women. In the south every young girl, from a very early age, is taught to get everything they can from their looks. They are taught that your self image and value are to be found in things that are fleeting. Someday you will be old, wrinkly, and heavier than you are now. Even if you get to age well, and I hope you do, you still will age. The body will deteriate, and all those things you found your value in will leave you. What a sad thing to try to find worth in things we were never intended to find them in. This is no different than a material possession, or another human, all will be found lacking. All you have to do is look around and see that it doesn't end when you step off the stage. The cycle repeats, the older women try to look younger, and the younger older. All chasing something that is surely to bring nothing but fleeting, counterfit happiness.I watched the pagaent last night through different eyes. Now that you are in my life, I can relate to those father's sitting in the crowd. Azzi, God put me in your life for several reasons. One of those being to protect your heart. I've started to realize the preciousness of the young girl's heart. The incredible value, and worth of a women, the tenderness of their heart, the desire to be noticed and loved, to be seen as beautiful and worthy of effection. Azzi you are beautiful. Beautiful because your creator said so. Beautiful because he made you. Beautiful for one man to notice, appreciate, and doed upon. Until, that man shows up, and I pray he does, that role is mine. I never want you to think that a man will only love you if you know how to answer a question without even thinking, only love you if you pick a dress that has the right cut, right color, and matching earings. That the only way a man will love you is if you change your apperance, alter the body God gave you, and show it off on stage in front of the whole state in a two piece bathing suit. What a cheap form of worth, it might be the worst.
Take notice of your mother, what an example you have right in front of you. I was attracted to your mother's heart first. She stood out in the crowd. There are several beautiful, fit, women in this world, but I've yet to find one that possesed what your mother does. She had all the qualities, all the talent, and the figure to win a pagaent, yet she laid all those things down for something greater. God showed her her value came in something far greater than a crown that breaks, and an award that will collect dust and be forgotten. Your mother is the most beautiful person I have ever laid eyes upon. What power to not chase something so fleeting. What grace from God to find her confidence not in her flesh, (which is wasting away), but in her soul, (which will last forever). You have no idea, what a blessing this can be for your husband.
Azzi, you are beautiful. God created you that way, but your beauty is not something to be taken lightly. It's not something to be toyed with or abused. God did not give you your eyes, figure, and hair color for selfish gain. In a world where women alter their apperance left and right, in a world where modesty has been challenged with more and more skin, it will only be by the grace of God that you are saved from the utter heartache that awaits so many women. What a wasted life to be spent on cheap thrills and in the process damage your soul.
I pray God gives me the ability as your father to love you this way, talk to you about your heart, and lead you down the path of righteousness. I love the redemption process, I love seeing God at work, I love that you have the mother you do. I pray God keeps you from the grips of vanity and gives you the freedom to live in your own skin.
Dad
