My cool daughter Kalli

Four years ago I wrote a blog about my cool daughter Kassi. It's time that I brag on my cool daughter Kalli. In my blog about Kassi, I shared something random that she did.

Kalli lives a life of randomness picking one thing would be difficult. We never know what she is going to say or do next. She constantly makes me smile. Last night, her youth group came over for an end-of-the-year pool party. I was setting next to an adult while Kalli was with her friends. Out of the blue, she came over and started randomly dancing to an 80's tune. Now you have to understand mine and Kalli's random dancing; we act out the song with a dance...a very goofy one usually. She didn't care who was watching, she only wanted to make me laugh.

Kalli is a very pretty girl AND she likes looking pretty. But I love how she still will act like a little girl and get excited over the smallest things. This morning, Kim got up early and decided to wake the girls and take them to the new Waffle House. Kalli (and Kelsi) were so excited, Kim said "you would have thought I took them to Regas". Kelsi is 6 so her being excited about anything is understandable. Kalli is 15 now, she just got excited because it was the fun thing to do. On top of that, she went as-is. She didn't care who saw her. I think it was because she was with her mom who is just as big of a kid.

It amazes me and thrills me how her and her mother have grown so close this summer. Anyone who is close to the Knights know that we have had some family adversity for the past 2 years and it has really been stepped up the past 6 months. Kalli has really stepped in to be a comfort for Kim. Somehow she always knows how to make Kim feel good...to make her feel loved, an extra special mother-daughter love.

Kalli went on a mission trip with her Rio 180 youth group this summer to Panama. Because of the flu outbreak in Panama nothing went as planned. When you are on a mission trip in a foreign country and you don't have an agenda, it can be rough. Kalli didn't complain. There was adversity and Kalli handled it very maturely. All the while, she was doing ministry.

Kim, Kalli, and Kelsi went to Girls camp this weekend with our church and with RIO Central. There were at least 40 kids there and most of the pictures that I saw with Kalli had her sister Kelsi in them too. She is such a good big sister. She has more motherly instincts than many mothers that I have met.

Oh yeah...and she made the Sevier County High School Dance Team this summer. I am so very proud of her and I am very proud to call her my daughter. Kalli and I are alike in many ways and I see a few contentious confrontations in our future but that's OK. Kalli and I are close and we can handle conflict. One of us will win and the other will say she (foreshadowing) is sorry. We'll hug it out and everything will be OK. Then she'll go tell her mom on me :) so she gets more hugs.

I love 'er (inside joke) and I just can't help it.

Thank you God for giving Kalli to Kim and Me.

What Dad's and Husbands want to say

As a father and husband, I too often don't have the words to express my feelings.  It's too easy to get caught up in budgets, work, chores, activities, and everything else that I let steal my attention.  I have a very loving family and they are very accepting of my shortcomings because they love me.  They deserve better.  

Today, while listening to "106.7 The Light", I heard something that every husband and father wishes they could convey to their wife and daughters.  This is my message to my family.

Kim, Kassi, Kalli, and Kelsi this is for you.  Watch the video below to see what I want you to hear from me every day.  I love you!!

You are AWESOME!!!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uWi5iXnguTU

God loves you and I do too!!
John Knight

Pretty Woman

Who would have thought that I could have been inspired by Julia Roberts in Pretty Woman?  Pretty Woman is one of my wife's favorite movies and when she stumbled onto it this week she had to watch it.  What stood out to me was a moment in the film when Richard Gere was telling her how pretty and smart she was.  Then, he said something like he didn't understand why she couldn't see it.  She said "it's easier to believe the bad". 

That one statement spoke volumes to me.  As a father with three daughters, I'm always conscience of my daughter's self-esteem.  My wife is so very good at watching out for their self-esteem.  I try to say the right things but I just don't measure up to her.  We are fortunate to have three beautiful (inside and out) girls.  But I can't help to think about all of the pretty girls that I knew in high school that thought they were ugly.  Back then, I just wrote it off and assumed they just said that so they would hear someone tell them "you're not ugly, you're pretty".  Now that I'm older I can look back and see, based on the way some of them made decisions, they really did think they were ugly.

After all these years of Dateline reports, news reports, and other studies that I've been exposed to, mostly common sense stuff I guess, low self-esteem can cause a young woman to do things that aren't very Godly.  Low self-esteem is a tool that the devil uses against our teens to deceive them into making very bad decisions.  How many teenage girls have you known that have made some really bad decisions involving a boy that just didn't make sense?  I'll go out on a limb and say 99% of those bad decisions are because of low self-esteem.  Why?  Why does someone that is so pretty need to feel accepted by a boy so badly that they will do anything to win his approval?

The fact is that the devil will use one single thing to tear a teenager down.  For some reason, no matter how much good that has been said about you and to you, it only takes one bad thing to shake your self-esteem.  Like Julia Roberts said "it's easier to believe the bad".   That's why, as a parent, we MUST tell our children how good, pretty, or smart they are.  Starting from the day our kids can understand what we say we must give them positive reinforcement.  Because there is going to come a day when some immature boy or girl tells them "you’re not as pretty as you think you are" or they aren't going to win the starting position that they've worked so hard for.  You can be guaranteed that there will be times that will shake your child's self-esteem.  It happened to me and I bet it happened to you.  When that time comes, will there be enough good that it makes it at least harder to believe the bad?

Dad's, your daughters HAVE to know (not just think or wonder) that you think they are the prettiest girl alive.  They have to know that you believe in them.  Mom and Dad, they have to know that when the chips are down, they have parents they can go to who will help them and pray with them.  You must teach them what it means to be "fearfully and wonderfully made" Psalms 139:14.  I know it's hard but we have to teach them that God's acceptance is the only acceptance that they need.  Dad's, I know it's hard for us to pay compliments sometimes.  I don't know why, it just is.  But for your children's sake, we must do a better job of complimenting them.

And above all, pray, pray, pray.  Build a hedge of prayer around your children to help protect them from the bad that the devil is going to send their way.

I love you and God does too!