10%

Mikayla's First Date

With the man who loves her most

By Tineke Ziemer

July 6^th, 2014

Up until now, my husband has been in complete denial about our daughter becoming a young woman. To him, she is still the tiny little baby who slept on his chest for the first several months of her life, the little girl who called every insect a “bee” because that’s all she could pronounce, and the sweet innocent three year old who said she wanted to marry her brother when she grew up (don’t worry, we informed her that it’s not done that way!)

A few months ago, when she started buying clothes from the woman’s section at the store, my husband refused to accept that she could possibly be that big. Every time she wore one of the outfits and asked “do you like my dress, dad?” he would say, “I hate that dress!” It became a joke between them that he would not admit that she was

all grown up.

But along came her twelfth birthday and with it, the cold, hard facts. She was no longer his baby girl. Accepting that she was now a young woman, and heading into some of the biggest years of her life, her dad decided it was time to do something special (and I must take this moment to say that ALL of this from start to finish came completely from Len, on his own, without any input from me. I know, I’m still in shock about it too.)

For her birthday, she received this invitation from him:
(p.s. he meant semi-formal, but as I said, he did this on his own! And pretty well too!)

Knowing that it’s only a matter of time before she begins to be interested in young men, Len wanted her very first date to be with the man who loves her most. He wanted to show her exactly how a young woman deserves to be treated by a man. He wanted her first date to set a precedent for the respect, chivalry and honour that she should expect to receive on every date thereafter. He knew that the best man to demonstrate that to any young woman, is her father.

Mikayla and I spent the afternoon giggling and exclaiming over outfits, hair dos and accessories. She dressed to the nines for her daddy, and he did the same for her. He met her at the walkway and opened the car door for her, telling her “a lady never opens the door for herself.” They drove away laughing together and waving good-bye to me.

She doesn’t know it yet, but Len has something else special planned for her on their date. As a celebration of her becoming a young woman, he has purchased a very special ring. It’s a purity ring, which carries with it something very important in our faith. We believe the greatest gift a woman can give her husband on their wedding night is her purity, and this ring is a symbol of the decision Mikayla has made to do that. She will wear it on her finger until the day she gets married and it is replaced with her wedding band.

I had a few tears as they drove away. For the fact that my little girl is moving into a whole new stage of her life. And for the pride I feel that my husband loves his daughter enough to give this evening to her. It’s not only her first date, it’s a message of what true love really is, one that she will carry with her for the rest of her life.