A mother’s love is a necessity for a child to thrive. It has to be a constant, ever-present factor for a healthy upbringing.

A father’s love, however, has the potential to be so much more. While a child can be raised on a mother’s love, a father’s love has the potential to shape who she becomes.

The love of a father will either help her understand her future relationships, or cause her to question her identity in them. She will see the fullness of herself in his love, or she will wonder why she wasn’t enough to earn it all.

Most importantly, the love of her father will help her more easily understand the love of her Heavenly Father. She is secure in the everlasting love of the father she knows on earth, so it won’t be a stretch for her to learn about and accept the boundless, consuming, and abiding love of God.

I wanted to write this post last weekend, as an ode to Rafael on his first Father’s Day. However, he had to go into Super-Dad overdrive. I spent most of the weekend in bed with a tooth and sinus infection that knocked me out. He not only took care of his girl on Father’s Day (which I know he loved), but he also had to take care of me. I couldn’t ask for a better father to my children and partner in life. Giana and I love you, Rafael Soriano. Very, very, very much.