THE
FATHER THEY WANT

Topics: Children; Desires; Family; Fathers; Girls; Love; Needs; Single Moms

References: Proverbs 17:6; Ephesians 6:4; Colossians 3:21

The enormous response to Bob Carlisle’s 1996 ballad “Butterfly Kisses,” which speaks of the tender love between a father and his daughter, makes Carlisle feel sad.

“I get a lot of mail from young girls who try to get me to marry their moms,” he says. “That used to be a real chuckle because it’s so cute, but then I realized they don’t want a romance for mom; they want the father who is in that song. That just kills me.”

—Mary A. Kassian, “Father of the Fatherless,” Journal for Biblical Manhood and Womanhood (Spring 2000)