To my daughters future husband.

I am writing you this letter now to let you in on a few things.  First off, it seems really weird that I am writing you this letter because Ryan is only one.  She is having a hard time going to sleep tonight and is actually lying on my wife’s chest.

I am afraid.  The role you will play in Ryan’s life scares me because I want the absolute best for her.  Because not only is she beautiful on the outside, you have come to know and love how beautiful she is on the inside as well…  Her personality hasn’t quite fully developed yet.  I mean she loves to dance but at the same time, she likes to stick leaves in her mouth as well…

Remember, she is still one.

I am finding this a lot harder to write than expected.  I don’t know you yet.  I don’t know how respectful you are, your taste in music, etc., but more importantly, how your faith in God is.

I pray that you are a man of great faith.  I pray you have integrity and that you are an honest person.  I hope that you will love my daughter as Christ loved the church.  I hope you are a thoughtful and a caring individual.  These things are the things she will look for because that will be the way she is raised.

She has a great role model in her mother on how a wife should treat her husband.  Ryan will be that to you.  Loving unconditionally, supportive, knowing that marriage isn’t like what you see in the movies but a commitment and a promise to love you when you inevitably break a rule or even worse break her heart.  She will understand that marriage isn’t something you can give up on.  She will know how hard it is to be good at being married.  She will be faithful to you and honor you in all she does.  She will understand these things because she will see it in my wife.

She will have high expectations for you.  She will want for someone to encourage her and not put her down.  She will want someone who will be her biggest cheerleader. She will look for someone who whenever she makes mistakes will handle her with extreme care and grace.  You will have to do these things because she will be counting on you to comfort her and lead her and not crush her.  Your patience will be tested and pushed to its limits.  I hope you choose your words carefully in those situations and learn forgiveness and how to forgive.  She will expect these things from you because I am trying to be that role model for her on how her future husband should treat her.

Leaving my daughters heart in your hands will be one of the hardest things I will ever do in my life.  Because marriage isn’t what it used to be in our culture.  A line in your vows that you will say to each other is “Until death, do we part.”  That is a line that is often overlooked and forgotten between a man and wife.  Its tossed to the side after the wedding day.  Our culture is so focused on trends, and after that is neat for a while, they are looking for something new to keep their attention.  I pray that you don’t treat marriage and my daughter as a trend and when things do get hard she isn’t just replaced by another.  I hope you fight for her.  Fight for her love and attention.  Fight and never give up on her.

These are the things I wish for her and you. Until the day we meet I will be praying for you.

~Jared, your future father-n-law.