Matt and I dated for only two weeks when we decided we’d be together forever. We chose which breed of dog we wanted, what our dream house would look like, where we’d live forever – and our first child’s name. Ryan.

Six years later, we found Ryan was going to be a girl and her name morphed into Rhyan. All the same, her precious name means, ‘a child of royalty, little princess’.

When Rhyan was five years old, we were driving home from the park in silence when she spoke up from the back seat that she just asked Jesus into her heart and told Him she was sorry for her sins. At barely five years of age, I had my reservations. But she didn’t. And she never has. She’s never wavered about her salvation and I have watched over these past two years as she has developed a relationship with her Father that I want to run to. A faith that doesn’t falter. And the desire for everyone to know Him that is always foremost on her mind.

Last week, a repairman came to fix our cable. Rhyan asked me, “Does that boy know Jesus?” When I told her that I didn’t know, she said quite simply, “Why don’t you ask him?” While my daughter, who was born deaf - who the world said would never speak - now tells everyone she knows and everyone she meets about her King, I remain silent in a world that is desperate for Him.

So, when the ‘boy’ came back in, I asked him. It was the first time in my life I asked a total stranger if he had a relationship with Christ. He hesitated for a moment, and then said that he did. I was able to share about Rhyan and how God has impacted our lives through her. He seemed to take something from it that he needed, and I was grateful for the exchange - changed by the experience.

Tomorrow, Easter Sunday, Rhyan will be baptized. As she has said to me, “I want the whole world to know that I love Jesus. I love Him with all my heart.” And I say to her, He loves you with all His heart, too, Dear One. You are a true child of Royalty…

You are God’s little princess.