Happy 6th Birthday Sophie!

Sophie,

Tomorrow you will be six years old. Tomorrow will mark six years of staring into your big, bright blue eyes, hearing your "passionate" cries, and loving you with all of my heart. This year is particularly special to me because this summer, you turn six years old and your family has moved to Franklin for your dad to join the staff of The People's Church. The summer I turned six years old, my family moved to Franklin for my dad to join the staff of The People's Church, (though back then it was called First Baptist Church.) In some ways, I feel like I am watching history begin again. I find myself wanting to tell you some things as we embark on this new beginning...

Sophie, you are so much like me in so many ways. You are oh-so-very strong willed. You like nothing better than a good book. You are incredibly passionate, smart as a whip, and you are a leader. We've already started butting heads over our similarities, and I know this is just the beginning. (After all, we're both leaders, and many days we have a battle of the wills to see who will lead that day!) There are many lessons you will have to learn the hard way, as much as I wish I could keep you from it. I know because there were many I had to learn the hard way. The important thing for you to remember is that my love will never waiver no matter how frustrated we get with one another. I am on your team. As painful as realizing our similarities may be, I am thankful for the bond we share.

Sophie, you are so different from me in many ways. You truly have a childlike heart. There is a joy I hear in your laughter that is rare. You feel all your emotions deeply, but none as deeply as the joy that radiates from you. There is a winsomeness in the way you skip, dance, flitter and float that is precious to watch. You are also amazingly confident! This fact makes me so proud and scares me all at the same time! (I can't imagine that the world could be ready for someone so much like me, with an incredible dose of confidence!) You don't set about to please much of anyone, and, I must admit, I'm a little in awe of that aspect of your nature. You are also beautifully creative. Your artistic ability exceeded mine some time before you turned three! Your eye for design and color amaze me. I am thankful for the aspects of you that are so very different from me.

Even with all the ways that we differ, we are so bonded and so much alike that I believe I can anticipate what some of your struggles will be. Already you are getting to the age where much of what is remarkable about you causes you problems in your relationships. There is a fine line

between being strong-willed and being defiant. (I know! I've walked that line!) Passion can become unrestrained anger, a smart mind can lead to an arrogant attitude, and leadership skills can become a controlling nature. There is much the Lord will refine in your life as He continues to do in mine. I know that the refining process can be very painful, but I want you to know that my money is on you. You are strong, you are smart, and you are loving, and as I've prayed over you for years, "the plans He has for you are good plans, plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you hope and a future." My over-arching prayer for you has been that the Lord would bless you with wisdom, just as your name means. He has already begun answering that prayer, and I am trusting Him to complete the work of wisdom in Your life.

You are my first child. I have made a million mistakes with you. I see how my shortcomings and

failures affect you, even more than with your brother and sister. As discouraging as that is, it is also a reminder to me to yield to the Lord's work in my life each day. The desire of my heart is for you to see in me a picture of a flawed woman who passionately loves the Lord and allows Him to refine her.

Already this summer, you have taken major steps towards the One who created you, sustains you, and loves you more than you can imagine. He is the source of the wisdom that is the key to you becoming all you were meant to be. As I celebrate six years of your life, of me getting to be your mama and getting to know the complicated, amazing person that you are, I cannot help but stop to thank the One that gave you to us. I am celebrating six years of getting to know the "fearfully and wonderfully made" gift that you are. Happy 6th Birthday Sophie!

I love you as big as the sky!

Mama