Like Father, Like Daughter

She said to him, "My father, if you have opened your mouth to the Lord, do to me according to what has gone out of your mouth; now that the Lord has given you vengeance against your enemies, the Ammonites." And she said to her father; "Let this thing be done for me: Grant me two months, so that I may go and wander on the mountains and bewail my virginity, my companions and I. " Judges 11: 36-37 NRSV

I am not sure who is the more foolish: father or daughter. Perhaps it is like father, like daughter.

Hello? Your dad is going to kill you and all you can think about is mourning your unmarried state? Run for the hills, yes, and keep going!!

Did she think her father would find a loophole in two months? Was she not upset that she was going to die? Was her virginity that much more important to her than her life?

Perhaps the overwhelming thought at that time was that if you don't have kids, you don't have immortality - maybe that was what she was really mourning.

She certainly didn't have a good parental role model - and neither did her father, it seems.

Thank God for all the good parental models we have in our lives - whether they are related by blood or not. Pray that we will all be good parental models to the children in our families and our churches. Amen.

Question of the day: What is one way you can show children in your family or church that God loves them?

Copyright 2009 Amelia G. Sims