Measure Up!

There is no way to quite describe the feeling that I got when I sat down to eat with my daughter at the school cafeteria for the first time. She looked up at me, and well, it was a look that said she completely adored me. That just blew me away. She couldn't hardly sit still or know what to do with her hands, as if she wanted to hug me. She had a searching look on her face, as if to say, "Who am I?"  "Tell me who I am."

Fathers have a way of planting life mottos in their daughters' heads. 

"Measure Up!" is one of the most often heard mottos. Perhaps it is never said out loud, but a daughter knows what's expected — and her attempts to live up to those expectations from her childhood can result in her running her life by guilt. She ends up serving a motto rather than fully becoming herself.