The sparkle in her eyes

Her eyes gleamed, positively sparkeld, as he brought another catch up on the pier. "Wow, this is so much fun!" she squealed. Her dad had caught another large bass and she was so thrilled to be out here, on the pier again, just the two of them.

Yeah it was Wednesday, middle of the week, and dad had been at the office all day, but he'd made time for her, again, to do something fun - together, again.

It was bittersweet sometimes, actually. Wendy had lots of friends in her third grade class, and she had learned, sadly, that she needed to stop telling them about how awesome her dad was. They'd get mad and accuse her of bragging, but it had taken until last Christmas to finally understand what the problem was.

Well, what the real problem was.

It was the first week of class after Christmas break, and Lily started telling her friend about how her dad had taken her to Rockefeller Center to go ice skating; occasionally her mom would come too. But then her mom started saying that sometimes it might be good for just Lily and her dad to do things together.

She didn't get that -- she didn't understand why the three of them couldn't always do everything together. She loved her parents so much and was closer to them than anyone else.

Lily's mom started to explain that while moms were great for a lot of things, like fixing scrapes and giving hugs, and making great pancakes, only her dad could teach her about how girls should be treated by boys, and why.

After excitedly telling her friends about her dad taking her on their "date" to Rockefeller Center, Lily could tell some of her friends didn't want to hang with her anymore, and that they would get sad whenever she was around.

And that's when she found out about most of them having only one parent, their single moms. Oh sometimes there might be a boyfriend or two, but these were sort of like revolving doors in these girls' lives, and didn't treat them or their moms very well.

So the last thing they wanted to hear was Lily getting all happy about how "perfect" her dad was; she learned to be quiet about her dad in school, but that just made it feel more like her own "secret" -- how great her dad was!

The things he did for her -- helping her clean up her room when she was discouraged by the mess, being nice to her even when she was mad about stuff, and always so strong (she never would forget the time her dad faced down the guy calling her bad names on the street that day - he was really brave!) and yet always so kind and gentle with her.

That was it -- he was always kind and gentle with Lily, no matter what. Not like some of the other kids' moms or their boyfriends -- it was like her friends were always getting yelled at, just because their parents didn't want to be nice to them. Not her dad, though. Nope, he was awesome!

"What do you think, honey, think we can catch another bass today?" asked her dad. "Nope! I want to go get some ice cream on the boardwalk with my favorite daddy in the whole world!" she exclaimed.

Don't overlook the you can have on a child's life as a father. It's an awesome gift and responsibility that God has given you.