My Father's Daughter

Anne Wilson's “My Father's Daughter” is a country song about a father's influence and the faith he passed on. It begins with a child's view, “Ten foot tall and bulletproof, always looking up to you,” and recalls being four years old on his shoulders, listening for gravel in the driveway, and falling asleep after a goodnight kiss and bedtime prayers.

The chorus lists what she carries from him: “I've got your eyes, I've got your heart, I've got your arms holding me, I've got a place to land when I just can't make sense of anything.” Whatever labels the world puts on her, she says she will always be “my father's daughter.” The second verse is set later, with her out on her own and still listed as “Princess” in his phone. She says that through heaven and hell he loved her well, and that “you and God are how I made it.” The third verse returns to a Sunday morning in the third-row pew, watching him raise his hands and sing about living water. It ends with his words when she asked Jesus into her heart: “Annie, don't forget you are your father's daughter.”

Training a child in the way to go is Proverbs 22:6. Telling the next generation of the Lord's deeds is Psalm 78:4, and living water is John 4:14.