Creating a Library for My Daughter

My first daughter was born shortly after my 40^th birthday. I hope to be around for another 40 years, to walk as her companion through the many stages of a woman’s life. But I don’t take it for granted that I will be.

I have already started a library for her, filled with books about faith, biblical womanhood, marriage, and motherhood. I hope we will read them and talk about them together. If that isn’t part of God’s plan for her, then I pray she will read them herself and glean much wisdom and guidance from them.

I want to share with her the books that have impacted my life and made me the woman that I am. I want her to know what I was reading and thinking about at various stages in my journey of motherhood. And just in case I am not there to tell her, I am collecting an assortment of books for her and inscribing each one with a few words and the date inside the cover. Some of the books are brand new, purchased just for her. Others are stained with drips from my ever-present cup of coffee and, occasionally, my own tears.

There is page in the journal I keep for her which lists the books I want her to read. If the collection is ever broken up or misplaced, or if I “borrow” a title to re-read myself and forget to put it back, I want a record in the journal of what I intended to give her. There is also a page listing favorite children’s books which I hope she will share with my grandchildren. I haven’t begun setting these books aside yet, as I will still be enjoying them with her for years to come. One day, though, when she sorts through my vast library of children’s books, I want her to know which ones were her favorites, and which ones I most loved to read to her.

What great books do you intend to share with your daughter?

Here are a few of the titles I have put in my daughter’s library so far:

Stepping Heavenward by Elizabeth Prentiss

The Excellent Wife: A Biblical Perspective by Martha Peace

Let Me Be a Woman by Elisabeth Elliot

A Promise Kept by Robertson McQuilkin

Mother by Kathleen Norris

The Family Daughter Becoming Pillars of Strength in Our Father’s House by Sarah Bryant

What He Must Be: …If He Wants to Marry My Daughter by Voddie Baucham

Naked & Unashamed: Recapturing Family Intimacy by Bill Mills

Large Family Logistics by Kim Brenneman

The Ministry of Motherhood: Following Christ’s Example in Reaching the Hearts of Our Children by Sally Clarkson