The Single Woman

"God Hasn't Given Me a Daddy Yet"—The Big Faith of a Little Word

By Autumn J. Conley

The Big Faith of a Little Word My 4-year-old daughter, Cissy, and I had been running around all morning feverishly trying to transform my bug-and-mud-puddle-loving child into a princess worthy of fairy-tale fame.

My little tomboy would be making her grand debut as the flower girl in the wedding of one of her Sunday School teachers that day. I was honored that Nikki and Tom had asked my daughter to play this role in their special day, but by the time we got to the beauty parlor for her hair appointment, I welcomed the chance to relax while Lori, a brave and patient beautician, began to make something elegant out of my daughter's flyaway, pig-tailed head of hair.

As I sat flipping nonchalantly through a magazine, occasionally lending the instinctive mother's ear and eye to my daughter, I heard part of a conversation between the beautician and Cissy that made me proud of my daughter and ashamed of myself all at once.

Lori was nearly finished with Cissy's hair and, as she applied the final 10 coats of industrial strength, not-even-a-monsoon-could-move-this-hairdo hairspray to my little girl's beautiful updo, she unknowingly asked Cissy, "What does your daddy say when you come home looking this pretty?"

As a single mom, I sometimes experience regretful moments when I get a guilty feeling that my child is suffering distress because of my foolish behavior and poor decisions in the past. This was one of those moments. I clenched my teeth as I waited to see how Cissy would answer—after all, she had never had a daddy and certainly didn't have one at home now to admire her hairdo.

She sat there for a second, looking so elegant and so childish all at once, glanced at Lori with all the thoughtfulness a 4-year-old can muster, and said smugly "God hasn't given me a daddy yet."

In that short answer, my daughter demonstrated a great deal of faith. The certainty and contentment in her little voice were true testimonies of her faith in a God who loves her and provides for her needs.

Perhaps we can all take a lesson from the childlike faithfulness of the word yet. We find it throughout the Scriptures and spoken often by Jesus as an indication of something that is certain to happen eventually. In John 7, Jesus tells his friends and acquaintances that His hour "is not yet come" and He "was not yet glorified." In John 20, we read that He had "not yet returned" to His Father. And in Revelation 8:13, we hear of trumpets which are yet to sound.

We should know with an unfailing certainty that what God tells us is "yet to come" either did happen as promised or will happen when He deems the time is right. If we could just attach a "yet" to our so-far-unanswered prayers, we could live happier knowing that all of our "yets" are in the Lord's hands after all. And, like the reliant faith of a child, we should be content to leave them there.