I took my daughter to Barnes & Noble to buy a book called Why a Daughter Needs a Dad. It's a beautiful book full of musings and pictures of dads with their daughters, and she's been eyeing it for her daddy since she fell in love with it a couple of months ago.

We picked up a few other books to peruse and headed for Starbuck's to share a Frappuccino, then sat with our heads together reading and chatting over an American Girl book about friendship.

As we took turns reading, I marveled at my little girl, barely halfway through her 8th year yet incredibly wise and full of integrity. She chose five characteristics she looks for in a friend from a list of twelve possible choices, then read on to find that by the choices she made, she was interested in deep, abiding friendships and the personal qualities that make one such. She had passed up anything surface, vain, or materialistic (no real surprise there, I just found it interesting).

As we read, we chatted about her friends and how there is a boy a bit younger in her Sunday School class who seems to just hang on even the smallest word from her, admiring her and following her around much of the time. She told me how that morning he'd asked for her help with his snowman craft project and they'd spent an hour passing each other glue, scissors, and markers, and working on their snowmen together. I told her she probably had no idea what an impact her kindness had on that little boy.

We read on to a page about "best friends". We read that calling someone a "best" friend might make one person feel good, but can make others feel less important and even unwanted. We read about being inclusive and having a wide and varied circle of friends we love and spend time with. We read that labels separate people and hearts. She leaned close and whispered, "Mama, you are my best friend, but I won't say it in front of anyone else and make them feel uncomfortable."

Much of what I read and learned about friendship and about my daughter, I already knew. God has been speaking deeply to my heart for some time now about how to be a better friend, and my daughter and I are extremely close and know one another inside and out. But I think there are some lessons in life we just need to have confirmed once in a while.

I went to the bookstore looking for a book about why a daughter needs a dad, and came away knowing in the sweetest way why a mother needs a child. The two hours I spent bent over that book with my precious angel was one of my best gifts ever. I'm fairly certain it's an evening neither she nor I will ever forget.