Liz Curtis Higgs
About the Author

Former Bad Girl, grateful for the grace God offers. Happy wife of Bill, one of the Good Guys. Proud mom of two grown-up kids with tender hearts. Lame housekeeper. Marginal cook. Pitiful gardener. Stuff I love? Encouraging my sisters in Christ—across the page, from the platform, online, in person. Unpacking...

(in)side DaySpring: things we love
& you will too!
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(in)side DaySpring:
things we love
& you will too!
Find more at
DaySpring.com
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  1. Our ‘just like me’ daughter is 8 and lately it’s been a real challenge raising our ever argumentative mini-me. Thank you for these encouraging words. She is just like me, in lots of good things as well.

    • What an adventure you have ahead of you, MJ! You are so wise to focus on those many good qualities. If she’s argumentative, she’s also smart. Smart enough to think things through, to reason, to ask questions, to challenge. Praying much joy for you in the journey.

  2. Liz,
    I love the way you weave a story…and what great memory stories to weave (both at age 5 and college graduation). My daughter is just like me in some good and in some not so good ways…she also has some wonderful traits that I don’t possess…I guess that’s what makes her uniquely her. As a mom, I feel like my job has been to discover the unique personality and bent within my daughter and to train her up in the way only she can go. I’m glad her path is not my path and it’s been like opening a present to discover the ways God has ordained for her to go and grow. We locked horns many a time during her teenage/early adulthood years, but now we have a beautiful relationship that I wouldn’t trade for the world. And, yes, she has rubbed off on me too :). Thanks for a wonderful post today!
    Blessings,
    Bev

  3. I love how you weaved this story…. Having children… especially daughters that are like us can unearth things in our heart… and one of those can be self-loathing… those things we really don’t like about ourselves… and I am not just talking about sin… and when we see these same qualities in our daughters, we can panic. as a young mom… I wanted to root these out of my daughter… I would even use these words… I just don’t want to to be like me ….or struggle like me… but what gets translated many times to a child is… I don’t like the way you are… I am so thankful for God’s mercy… He opened my eyes before I did too much damage… He had to heal my heart… give me His love for myself… so I could celebrate all the ways He made my children… even those ways like me!!!

    • What a wise soul you are, Ro. That’s something I still struggle with now and again–not liking how I turned out! Your decision to celebrate all the ways He made your children (and you) is SO RIGHT.

  4. My daughter reflects both the best and worst of me. I pray fervently for the Lord to capture her heart and her strong will to be yielded to His. She’s only eight, and I know it was MANY years before He had all of me, so I try to operate with grace. She is everything wonderful and challenging wrapped up in pure delight. How delightful to enjoy a trip to Disney with just her!

  5. Liz,
    I also took my daughter to Disney World for her college graduation gift. Just the two of us enjoying the trip & each other – it was a wonderful gift to us both! We are hoping to go again someday too.
    I borrowed your wonderful words and sent your post off to my daughter!! Thanks for sharing your joy!!
    Joyfully in Jesus!

  6. Liz,

    How truly special, thank-you for sharing these moments with us.It brought thoughts of how as a daughter how much I loved and admired my mother and as a mother how much I love and admire my daughter…….. I have a feeling that your daughter has a great deal of love and admiration for you as well.

    Blessings to you,

    Penny

    • That’s my prayer, Penny. We don’t get to pick our kids, and they definitely don’t get to pick us. It’s amazing it ever works out, right?! Every time I’m hard on myself and start rattling off the many ways I failed as a mom when she was young, Lilly is quick to point out all the good things I taught her. I’m so, so grateful for that. The Lord knows what we need to keep going.

  7. As a daughter who is often compared to her mother, I can tell you it means everything to be positively compared to the godly woman who raised me. It’s been a tough relationship for many reasons outside of our “alikeness”, but I so grateful for the ability to boldly speak truth into a situation that I gained from her through heredity and observation. I am grateful, too, for the irreverent sense of humor that I gained in the same ways. Both of those things have served me well on many occasions. Lily is a jewel in your crown, Liz, and I’m so glad you see it that way, too.

  8. Oh! Lilly is so beautiful and effervescent, right to the tippy-tips of her passionate-pink Minnie ears! You can just *see* her joy explode over the screen. Wonder from whom she gets that?! She is so fortunate to have you as a mother, and you are both sharing such special traits and sparkling experiences together. It’s wonderful that you two are obviously great friends. Sheridan and I are that, too. She’s twenty-two, and I had her when I was forty. I was scared to death, and never had wanted to be a mother (and likely a huge part of that stemmed from my feelings of inadequacy for such a mammoth undertaking. Mothering isnt’ for sissies). And yet, from the start, Sheridan has been such a joy, that she soon changed my feelings about parenthood. We’re great friends, now, too, and she is an amazingly beautiful, joyful, sweet, and talented young woman (don’t mean to bore you hear with my mommy brag list!). But wow, she just is so special. I’m so grateful that she exhibits the best qualities of Mike and me and is actually like us both. And I’m especially grateful that she seems to have left my many inadequacies behind. Boy, *that* is really a gift! Thank you for such a beautiful, heartwarming rendering of your tale of mother-daughter adventures during Advent. Your Lilly is God’s precious gift to you, and you, to her. I’ve been so touched by reading your story!
    Merry Christmas!
    Love
    Lynn

    • Bless you, Lynn. And I’m delighted to hear all the ways you love your daughter! Not brag, just fact, right? :>) Lilly’s joy that day was unstoppable. SO fun to see Disney through her eyes…again. We’re already plotting a return visit in 2017! (Is that a real year? It sounds like next century!) Thanks again for your kind words, Lynn.

  9. Oh. My daughter. So much like me. I have always been ultra aware of how she is like me and I’ve provided opportunities and encouraged her in ways so she hopefully will not turn out like me. But… I have recently allowed myself to accept who I am and how God made me (and her!). I would not be who I am or where I am today with another personality. Neither would she be. I am able to embrace us both for who we are as individuals in Christ Jesus.

    • Wow, Kim. Wisdom, right there. Everything we’ve been through, good and bad, makes us who we are today by God’s design. Rejoicing in your discovery of that amazing truth!

  10. Our little girl was born with Down Syndrome and has had her challenges. So many times I am on her and then have to ask forgiveness for the way I have acted with her. When I sit back and watch her (she is now 15), I see me coming out in so many ways. Then that stubbornness takes hold and I try my best to not lose my temper.
    Thank you for today’s post! It brought tears to my eyes.
    Dear God, help me be more like you because she is so much like me! In Jesus’ name, Amen.

    • Our children’s challenges become our challenges, that’s for sure, Heather. You are definitely not alone in that. And your prayer? Perfect. Merry Christmas to you and yours!

  11. Thank you for your encouragement. My daughter and I get along great…I just love her. And she is in so many ways her mothers daughter. ..lol. Right now she walks a different road…but that makes me love her more, cause I’m going to love her right into the Kingdom. Praying every promise and pleading the blood, knowing and trusting that Abba who hears will respond. I trained her up in the right way and although she has chosen a different path, still God watches over and like the prodigal son’s father He waits, watching from afar till she comes home.

    • Your love for your daughter and your absolute commitment to her inspire us all, Dee. May you indeed LOVE her into the Kingdom. That’s the only path that leads us there. Well done, sister.

  12. Heartwarming and precious. We have three daughters who are so uniquely wonderful, each in their own beautiful personalities. Seeing myself in them can be uplifting or, at times, downright unnerving. Like you, I love every part of who they are. Our two granddaughters are precious replicas of their mothers and are special and loved for who they are. Thanks for making me smile today.

  13. Loved this. I have three daughters. The youngest a senior at university. She calls all the time and I understand your heart here

  14. Sweet post. As a mother of four daughters, ages 15-28, I totally understand your heart. It’s only after she marries and gives birth to a child of her own that you will see yourself full circle in your daughter. And, like your trips to Disney, it’s magical!

  15. Liz, your post made tears prick my eyes. So beautiful to see the lessons we learn as moms, if we’re open. Both of our boys are adopted, but they both have those mini-me traits, to some degree. Some good . . . and some not so good. I loved what you shared about how we the moms learn right alongside our children as we train them up in the way they should go.

    Both my guys love hard. One is quick to forgive and snap out of a “mood.” The other can be very prickly when he gets in a mood. I’m learning to love them even when they try to push me back. I pray they will grow into young men who emulate Jesus. I pray I also can learn from their exuberance and their love-out-loud ways.

    Merry Christmas!

  16. When my daughter went through a very mild rebellious stage, I would tell her the exact same thing! “I hope you have a daughter just like you!” Well… She did, and I absolutely love that mini Michelle! She even looks just like her, and I’ve caught myself accidently calling her Michelle. We laugh all the time about when I said that.
    Grandkids have a way of being perfect in grandmas eyes! The love I feel for my grands is so strong, it’s like finding the pot of gold at the end of that rainbow!
    I love your writing, I feel as if we would be great friends. Our stories are similar.
    Wishing you a Christmas overflowing with great love.
    Lisa

  17. “While we “train up a child in the way he should go” (Proverbs 22:6 KJV), our children teach us too. Humility. Gratitude. Acceptance. And joy.”

    Yes! A thousand times yes! I have a very spirited, strong, beautiful little girl. She is only 18 months and has taught me so, so much already.

  18. What a BEAUTIFUL story you shared…really really really touched my heart. How blessed you both are, and thank you for sharing your moments. I too have a daughter. I don’t know that we have shared joy together – i know her pain has bonded us more. perhaps she will be blessed with a daughter that she can love with such joy as you have expressed…and I can witness it, and perhaps share in it as a nana. To live life as Lilly…that is what God had in mind!

  19. I my husband and I have been blessed with 2 daughters. Our youngest is my “mini-me” in so many ways! Our oldest has some of my characteristics, but is also definitely her father’s daughter…and looks like his mother. We found a long lost picture of his mom from her high school years; she was raised in a traditional Mennonite home, so pictures were far and few between. When our oldest saw it, she said, “now I know who I look like!” For years she had heard people say how much her sister looks like me, but it’s not as much fun for a girl to hear she looks like her dad! Your post today brings home so many fun memories! And yes, they have both been told those infamous words: “I hope you have a child just like you!” 😉

  20. What a sweet memory for you and your daughter! It made me think of the fun times my only daughter and I have had. Thanks for sharing! 🙂

  21. Beautiful lessons our daughters give us. I was blessed 49 years ago with the most wonderful daughter after I had lost my son at 5 months into pregnancy. Such a sweet blessing she was and is. At 6 years she had open heart surgery. I remember during her early teens we would stay up late talking, crying and teaching each other life lessons. Seeing her perform plays and musicals and sports at school was such a delight. Seeing her mature into such a beautiful wife and mother and grandmother is such joy beyond measure. Did I do things right all the time…no way…I just found time to talk, encourage as well as be encouraged by a daughter who is so much like me. When asked by young mothers what I did to have such a great relation with her I can only answer prayer, the Lord’s hand and spending time and showing support no matter what. One extremely blessed momma. Merry Christmas Liz and thanks so much for your wonderful posts.

  22. Hi Liz,
    Wonderful post, great timing for me as I struggle with my overtired 15 year old daughter. I am very blessed she is a wonderful soul but I do cringe when I see some of my less attractive attributes in my daughter!
    Merry Christmas Liz, I’m hoping my husband sneaks your latest book into my stocking this Christmas!
    (I hope you make it back to Huntington this year!)
    Bernadette

  23. Oh Liz! Such an awesome story! Thank you for sharing. I loved the photo of Lilly! What fun the two of you had on both trips to Disney. It is magical isn’t it? My favorite trip to Disneyland in CA was when I won a trip and tickets to both Disneyland and the California Adventure. I took my then seven year old granddaughter. Just her and I. It was such a great bonding time. She’s a lovely 16 year old now and I see her most every day. God has blessed me abundantly with 6 wonderful grandchildren. It’s good to be Grandma too! 🙂
    Merry Christmas Liz!
    ps I am enjoying reading ‘The Women of Christmas’ this holiday season – it’s wonderful!

  24. LOVE this post! Our daughter is similar to me in many ways, but she is also very different. I’m thinking that our differences are bc we are…well…DIFFERENT…but also because she hasn’t had some of the life-experiences that I’ve had. Experiences that have shaped me and defined my outlook on things. Things like motherhood and having a child with a disability and another one with cancer and losing a parent and moving around and always being the “new” person. So maybe I was a lot like my daughter when I was her age, and maybe she will be more like me as the years go by. I don’t know. My husband has really great qualities that I already see in her, too, and that makes me so thankful. I love her and I ENJOY her so much. We also have 3 sons, and one of them inherited my “go with the flow” type of personality, and we can go anywhere at anytime and have a blast…no matter what happens.

  25. This really touched my heart. It is so easy to see only the negative ways that my daughter takes after me. It is easy to get caught up in the everyday busyness of raising my three year old daughter and forget that it passes quickly. I often just stop myself from a racing mind when I’m cuddling her and just breathe in the moment. I cherish these moments.

  26. Thanks for this as I enter the world of being a grandmother. I want to ENcourage, never DIScourage the parents!

  27. Totally needed this post today, as I am truly raising a daughter who is just like me. She’s sassy, independent, headstrong, and passionate. Oh, and emotional. Very emotional. Before she was born, God told me she would be a world-changer. In my mind, I thought big picture “world.” But with each day I’m realizing, God meant my world, her dad’s world, her brother’s world, and every other person in which she comes in contact. At only 18 months old, I’m convinced she’s going on 19 years old, but she’s my little Nugget, my little Aubrey Anne, and I am thankful that she is “just like me.”

  28. Liz,

    You and your daughter have a unique bond that only mothers and daughters could have.

    My parents did their best to raise four daughters. Each of us is unique in our own ways. I have turned out more like my dad than my mom, unfortunately. I have some good qualities of my mother. She was a good cook and loved to do things for people. Hard for me to believe she’s been gone 5 years now. I miss her, but know she’s in a good place.

    Blessings 🙂