Dear Little Girl in the Yellow Dress,

Not long ago, you and I sat on a plane together. You tried to show me how old you were, but you had trouble keeping all four fingers up at the same time. Like all children your age, you were wide-eyed and cute as a newborn kitten.

You were at the perfect age to share everything you knew with anyone who would listen. You told me your name, your dogs’ names and your doll’s name. You told me about your baby brother and how he cries a-l-l  t-h-e  t-i-m-e.  And then you showed me how you cover your ears when he gets too loud.

I watched you squint your eyes and put your hands over your mouth as you giggled. You asked if I had any kids, and I told you I had two boys. You weren’t impressed. You asked if I had a dog, and I told you I used to, but she got old and died. You gave me a sad look and then started singing and brushing your doll’s hair. What a wonderful age you are!

As I sat beside your sweet innocence, I felt an overwhelming urge to pray for you. You see, I know things about this world that you don’t yet know.

As you chattered away, I prayed that God would place a hedge of protection around you. In the future, wolves dressed in sheep’s clothing will appear at your doorstep. They’ll tell you anything to satisfy their carnal hunger and then leave as fast as they came. And sometimes, these wolves won’t even bother putting on sheep’s clothing. They’ll come, take whatever they want and leave you in broken pieces.

Unless God does a work in your life, you’ll spend the rest of your days trying to put it back together. My dear little girl in the yellow dress, I pray this will never happen to you.

There’s so much I wish I could talk to you about. I’d like to encourage you to find a godly woman who is wise to the ways of the world, but wiser to the things of God.

Choose someone who will walk beside you and mentor you on how to become a Proverbs 31 woman. She’ll teach you how to discern a good and godly man, someone who will do everything in his power to guard your innocence.

Little girl in the yellow dress, you don’t know this, but I’ve spent almost 40 years of my life trying to teach little boys how to become men. I didn’t do very well in the beginning, but as I’ve grown, I’ve redoubled my efforts.

I do my best to cast the Truth in to these young boys and call it out of them as they step into their manhood.  Growing up, I learned a lot about the Bible, but no one ever taught me how to walk as a good and godly man. When I tried to figure it out, I struggled and failed.

Today, I take my rightful place. We have only an hour and 15 minutes together, but as the closest man to you right now, I’m asking the Creator to bring men into your life who reflect Him.

As I sit beside you, I know you are “fearfully and wonderfully made” (Ps. 139:14). I didn’t make this up; it’s written in God’s Holy Book. The enemy wants to take away from you three things: your worth, your beauty and your innocence. I pray that one day, you’ll find a man who, when you look into his eyes, reflects what our heavenly Father says about each one of these.

I’ve seen many young men like this step into their roles, and that’s good. When you look for a man, you don’t need a Savior, because we already have one. His name is Jesus. But you do need a man who walks in sync with his Creator.

I pray today that you’ll find one of these men. He’ll know how to speak your worth and value into you. He’ll proclaim your beauty to the world and know how to reflect the heavenly Father through a touch. Yes, little girl in the yellow dress, there are men like that out there. Please don’t settle for anything less.

Well, the plane is about ready to land, and our paths may never cross again. But today, I thought of you and prayed that my God in Heaven would answer my prayers on your behalf. When you grow up, I pray you’ll find the man God has for you—the kind who will one day pray for the one who sits next to him on the airplane, the little girl in the yellow dress.

Your servant,
Walker Moore