It’s just after six am. The sun has yet to peer up from off the horizon. It’s time to prep for work and school. As I start toward my five year old’s room to wake her she meet’s me in her doorway rubbing her eyes. I don’t have to tell you guys that five is an extremely inquisitive age. This particular morning, my daughter starts our day with one simple question…”Daddy, am I worth it?”
I never thought I would be standing here in this time having such a conversation. My first born (son) is a 21 year old senior in college. I’d be traveling the world care free having paid what should have been my last tuition payment just last month. “Daddy, am I worth it?”
My kids and I love music. I am a child of the seventies. I grew up on Motown. That means my kids are growing up on Motown. One of my favorite songs is With a Child’s Heart by Michael Jackson. I would play it for my children almost daily when they were babies. The lyrics are so magically simplistic.
With a child’s heart
Go face the worries of the day
With a child’s heart
Turn each problem into play
No need to worry no need to fear
Just being alive makes it all so very clear
With a child’s heart
Nothing can ever get you down
With a child’s heart
You’ve got no reason to frown
Love is as welcome
As a sunny sunny day
No grown-up thoughts
To lead our hearts astray…
“Daddy, am I worth it?” That question so encapsulates the essence of the song. It’s the very spirit I hope to instill in my children for as long as possible because they face an increasingly colder and crueler world. I know no greater joy than that of being a father. There is no greater blessing. It is what drives me. It is what keeps me grounded.
“Daddy, am I worth it?”
Yes baby, you are worth every second of every minute of every hour of everyday of every breath that I take for as long as I live!
Family over everything… peace and blessings!
