My younger daughter, Thalia, is two, and living through an amusing and delightful phase in which she credits me for many things, only some of which are my doing. For example, because she knows I bring up new diapers from the basement when we run out upstairs, she will thank me loudly each morning when she sees her diapers, whether or not I’ve recently re-upped them. “Thank you, Daddy! Thank you new diapers, Daddy!”
This gratitude extends even to things I can take no real credit for. She was delighted one day when the smoke detector went off, triggered by steam from the shower. Now she points up at the detector frequently and shouts, “Beep beep! Thank you beep beep, Daddy!”
There are two lessons here for me, her father. The first is humility. While Thalia sweetly credits me for everything, I know I’m not the almighty provider she imagines—God is. The eyes of all look to you, and you give them their food in due season (Ps 145:15). I have to take my fatherly responsibility seriously while acknowledging my own limits.
The second lesson, though, is gratitude. I should imitate Thalia’s joyful and wholehearted appreciation of the givenness of things. I know who the true provider of all is, and I should be just as grateful to him as my daughter is to me. Every morning I should say, “Thank you, Daddy!” to my Heavenly Father—not least for the surpassing gift of my family.
