Darling Daughter
Katy Evans
Growing up my mum was definitely my biggest influence, I’ve always said that if I grow up to be like her I’ll be very happy. When I say she’s my biggest influence, it’s mostly due to the fact that she’s one of the primary factors for why I view the world the way I do. That’s because she is the biggest advocate for softheartedness. Whenever I was faced trials as a child my mum would always advise me, guide me, and pray with me through them in a way that maintained the softness of my heart. I think that’s why I love words so much because a few of them if passed gently in someone’s direction can have a lasting effect on the disposition of their hearts. I’ve always been a bit of a writer. I journaled a lot, wrote stories as a child, albeit I was always too shy to share them and got carried away with writing letters to my friends 32
FAITH FOLLOWS
because it was the kindest thing I knew how to do. I think when I met God, like really met Him, I had this craving to fill pages with lots of lovely words because I just didn’t know how else to express my feelings. It also helped me maintain this soft-heartedness that my mum so persistently instilled in me. Just over a year ago I went through a pretty big heartbreak, which, not to be dramatic, I thought might be the end of me. It took a lot for me to overcome it, however, throughout the process of trying to pick up the pieces I was very much determined not to allow this to harden my heart and God, in the very faithful way that He does, helped me keep my heart soft and open… and He did so with words. It was as if my mind, which had not been filled with the kindest of thoughts, was all of a sudden,
completely infected by this phrase ‘darling daughter.’ Each time I heard it my heart somehow pinpointed the emotion I was felt and I would just write, just as though God was writing a letter to me, titled ‘darling daughter.’ Now this wasn’t something that I was planning on, or even really willing to share. I kind of wanted it to be something to keep to myself, between me and God and have it be our little thing. However, He never does anything for the sake of it, and everything can be used to bring Him glory, even heartbreak. I felt this push to share the stuff I had been writing, with all honesty, maybe expecting just some of my friends to read it and that would be about it. But all of a sudden these people that I didn’t know were reading these letters and God began to move.
