LESSONS I LEARNED FROM MY LITTLE GIRL
By Dai Hankey
Christian Focus. 32 pages. £7.99
ISBN 978 1 527 101 791
The arrival of your first child is a unique season, both thrilling and terrifying, full of highs and lows and dizzying sleep deprivation.
In confusion and desperation, many of us reach for all manner of parenting books, hoping to find out how we can get these babies to learn to sleep and feed and be content. But I think all of us, deep down, realise that it is actually us who are doing most of the learning through those days. With the benefit of the passing of years (and three more children), Dai Hankey has now been able to reflect on his time as a new dad, tracing gospel truths through some of his experiences. The result is this short, beautifully illustrated book, Lessons I Learned from My Little Girl.
Experience and doctrines
In each of the eight chapters, Dai tells a story from baby Elen’s life which connects the events and emotions with life as God explains it in the Bible: the scan shows the preciousness of new life, the story of Elen’s first toddler rebellion over a cuddly toy exemplifying the concept of our original sin, her exuberant opening of Christmas gifts illustrating our need to joyfully accept God’s gift of life to us. It’s not a book that is going to teach you how to be a perfect dad; instead it points to the perfect dad, our heavenly father. It’s an elaborate gospel tract which uses treasured family memories that many of us can relate to as a starting point to introduce the best family story of them all: how the Lord has lovingly rescued and brought us into his family. I think it could be a lovely gift for new families, believers and not-yet-believers alike.
