Wife Rule #39: What You May Become

You entered this world a mere two weeks ago.

When I look at you, my tiny daughter, I see in your face the indelible marks of my fatherhood. It is an honor and awesome responsibility to know that my DNA is stamped into each of the billions of cells that make up your tiny, precious body.

And what an amazing body you have! Just think, a mere nine months ago you were microscopic in size. Since then, you have grown and multiplied at an astonishing rate: your arms, legs, hands and feet; your eyes, ears, nose, and mouth; your fingers and toes and tiny nails; your heart and lungs and amazing brain; have all flowered from the genesis of creation that started as a few minuscule cells.

Your perfect little body, so tiny and helpless now, will rapidly grow. Your infant cries will quickly fade, being replaced first by earnest imitation, eventually exploding in to speech. Your eyes, which focus now only at intimate range, will soon be able to take in the sweeping panorama of the world as it rushes around you. The kicks of your funny little froggy legs will lose their randomness as you learn to balance and carry yourself with grace and ease. Your arms and hands will soon replace flailing with focused grasping as you discover and develop the use of the incredible tools at your disposal.

And your mind--now so innocent and pure, so simple and sweet--how it will bloom! Your consciousness will expand beyond innate awareness of your own needs, to comprehend more complex emotions, and eventually to envelope empathy for others; to appreciate the supreme beauty of the earth you now live in; to discern smells and tastes and sounds and feelings that will add variety and color to your life; to grasp social systems and science; to understand the liberty of language; to appreciate and produce art and poetry and every other means to add beauty to the collective atmosphere we all share.

As you mature you will begin to grasp with your mind and heart the refined instincts that only your spirit knows now: true love of self, born of a knowledge that you are a daughter of a perfect Father in Heaven who loves you infinitely; adoration and emulation of your Savior, the infinite Being who can carry your every burden, calm your every fear, and cover your every sin and deficiency.

You will realize the value of family as your constant and unconditional friends and fellow-travellers in the grand adventure of eternity; you will begin to develop love of others, as you realize that your stewardship in life extends far beyond yourself and your earthly family, to your friends and neighbors, to the stranger, to even your enemies, and ultimately to every creature that ever has been or ever will share this earth with you. You will then understand that your family circle is meant to be all-inclusive, and you will see that everything truly begins and ends with family.

When you finally know these truths--not just a theoretical, academic knowledge, but when your soul understands and embraces and assimilates them so that they are woven into your very being--you will be firmly on the path that leads to the completeness that the Savior wants us all to achieve when He commanded, "Be ye therefore perfect, even as your Father which in Heaven is perfect." And once on this path, if you choose to persist, you will find peace and satisfaction in this life that you could never have imagined, and a reward of incomprehensible joy and ever-increasing abundance in the eternities ahead.

This abundant life is largely wrapped up in another adventure. Whether in this life or the next, if you carefully prepare, you will enter the highest, most refined and pure, most tender and prized relationship you can enjoy: that of the complete surrender of self through the union of your your mind, body, and spirit with another. This, in a complimentary, collaborative, creative synergy that increases the bounds of your eternal family in an ever-expanding circle; a small splash in mortality whose ripples expand throughout eternity.

If you carefully choose the right companion to begin this adventure, and bind yourselves together in the Lord's way, sealed under His power, there are blessings in store for you that you cannot fathom now; blessings that cannot possibly be appreciated until they are experienced. I enjoy a small portion of these blessings every time I think of you and what you can someday become: a woman who will mean, to a man worthy of your love, what your mother means to me.

This is what I wish for you, my daughter; my newest love; the finest expression of my faith; the incarnation of my hope for all that is good and worthwhile in this world and the next; my Charity.