Hillary, Segolène, and my Rachel Caroline

I just read the news that Hillary Rodham Clinton has thrown her hat in the ring as a contender for the 2008 presidential election. According to the news, she's got a chance. Here in France, Socialist candidate Segolène Royal is running a tight race to be the first female Présidente de la République. Everyone's making a big deal about these two women and their history-making candidacies. It is a big deal, no doubt.

Why am I writing about this? Yesterday was my daughter, Rachel Caroline's, twelfth birthday. Twelve years old. And she's becoming quite a young woman: beautiful, smart, creative, bi-lingual, and loved by me. Just like her mommy.

When I read about Clinton 2008, I thought about Rachel. Here are two very different types of models: the strong politically powerful woman and Rachel's mother. The wealthy, connected, woman whom everyone either loves or hates, or the self-sacrificing, hard-working, others-serving woman whom I love. Who do I want Rachel to emulate? There's very little question.

Proverbs 31 says:

Her children rise up and call her blessed;
her husband also, and he praises her:
“Many women have done excellently,
but you surpass them all.”
Charm is deceitful, and beauty is vain,
but a woman who fears the Lord is to be praised.
Give her of the fruit of her hands,
and let her works praise her in the gates. (ESV)

That's alot more like Rachel's mother than like the two women whose faces we'll be seeing much of over the next couple of years. And that's who I want Rachel to be like. If my daughter is ever President of the United States or of the Republic of France (both of which she's certainly capable of), it won't be because she has paid her political dues. It will be because she looked to her mother and because they both looked to God.

Happy birthday, Rachel. You'll always be Daddy's girl, and I love you and your Mommy very much.