The birth of my 5th son this past March marked the completion of our family.  I do love my boys, but sometimes still dream of what it would be like to have a daughter.  A special girl to chat with, to giggle with, to shop & craft with.  But, hopefully someday, I’ll have five daughter-in-laws, and here is what I’d want to say to them.

Dear Lovely Daughter-in-Law,

I have prayed for you long before I knew you.  As I watched my son grow, I prayed that God would craft for him a woman divinely created to love him just for who God made him to be, and that He would bring you both together in His timing.

My son is very dear to me.  As you marry and become one under God, you are now very dear to me too.  You are a part of our family.  I’ve long waited for a daughter, and that my dear, is how deeply I will care for you.

In our home, I was called the “queen” and it was how his Dad taught him how a woman should be loved, protected and cared for.  We told him one day he would find a queen of his own.  May he treat you as one.

His Dad and I also did our best to show him what a Godly marriage looks like.  Not a perfect marriage, but two sinful human beings seeking to follow Christ and working to create a home of joy, peace, forgiveness and selflessness together.  Marriage was not highly esteemed within the world we grew our family, and I’m sure the cultural pressures will be even great for you both, but my prayer is you will look to God’s Word for truth and find your marriage to be a relationship only second to that with your Savior.

I have been the woman who most contributed to who my son is today, but you, my daughter, will be the woman who will most influence who he becomes.  It is a powerful influence we can have as wives over our husbands.  May you use it wisely and for good.

And as for you and me, I pray that a friendship will grow.  One of mutual respect and love as we shape and serve the men of this family.  My own mother-in-law was a wonderful example to me.  She didn’t meddle in our marriage or show favoritism to her son.  She loved us both and honored our marriage by respecting the boundaries that allowed us to form and shape our own family.  Far more important is his role as your husband than him as my son.

Most of all, I pray God’s blessing over you and your marriage.  I pray that you will continue to seek a marriage under God’s design and extend the legacy that my husband and I have tried to build.  I pray that generations to come will be blessed by you, the woman you are, the wife and mother you will be, and the example you will set for them.

Be Blessed My Daughter,

Love,

Mom (I hope you will call me that.)

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