A story as told to Dennis Rainey
From the book Parenting Today's Adolescent
My son has two daughters one who is five and one his is two. For several years, he's taken the oldest girl out for a 'date' time but it wasn't until recently that he'd asked the two year old out.
On their first date, he took her to breakfast at a fast food restaurant. They'd just gotten their pancakes when he decided it would be a good time to tell her how much he loved and appreciated her.
Jenny, he said, I want you to know how much I love you and how special you are to Mom and me. We prayed for you for years, and now that you're here and growing up to be such a wonderful girl, we couldn't be more proud of you.
Once he said all this, he stopped talking and reached over for his fork to begin eating but he never got the fork into his mouth.
Jenny reached out and laid her little hand on her fathers. His eyes went to hers and in a soft, pleading voice she said, "Longer, Daddy, longer."
He put his fork down and told her even more reasons why he and her mother loved her. "You're very kind, nice to your sister, full of energy"
Then, he again reached for his fork only to hear the same words again. A second time, and a third, and a fourth time.. and each time he heard the words, "Longer, Daddy, longer"
That father never did get much to eat that morning, but his daughter feasted on words every child longs to hear.
Told by John Trent
Wow. Does that story bring tears to your eyes? It did to me the first time I read it. But not just because I have two little girls, who hold my heart in their hands. Mostly because of that. But also, because I realize that we have students that we see every weekend that would say the same thing to an adult that would care for them. They would say the same thing to an adult that would spend time with them, say hello to them, go see a game or a play they were in, call them out of the blue just to say hi, chat online with them for a few minutes. To a person that cares for them, "Longer....longer."
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