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We all love babies, don't we? Babies are so wonderful when they're born. I'll never forget the day my own daughter was born. Jodi was born a Texan at Arlington Memorial Hospital. Everyone else in our family was born a Cajun in New Orleans, but my daughter is a Texan. We didn't know what to do about that. We wondered, Should we buy her little cowboy boots? Should we dress her up in cowboy hats? We didn't know how to dress her up.

Jodi was so beautiful when she was a baby. You should've seen her. Oh, God! It'd just take your heart away. I heard a nurse say, "This is a beautiful baby. She doesn't look like her father - she's beautiful."

"She looks like my wife," I said.

"Yes, she's perfect," the nurses agreed.

Yes, perfect. Jodi had perfect little lips and a perfect face - she was nothing like her daddy. You've got to understand how Brother Jesse looked in those days. I had long, chocolate-brown hair. I said things like, "Yah, man, that's mah kid."

I could see those nurses thinking, Oh, my gosh, with a father like that, she could be smoking a joint at three months old. Oh, God, let's not let that beautiful baby go home with that rock musician! Why did her mommy marry him? Or is it a her? No, it's a him.

I watched out for my little girl though. Once, when I didn't think they had fed her enough at the hospital, I had a fit. My daughter was behind the glass with all the other babies, and to me she looked hungry. I got so mad I almost broke the glass. I punched it, waking up all those babies, and shouting, "Hey! Feed my kid!" Some hunchback nurse came and got me.

I'll never forget that nurse. She walked all hunched over like she couldn't stand up straight. She said, "Come here. I don't think they feed them enough either. I'll make sure your baby's fed."

They fed my baby, and pretty soon we took her home. At home, I decided not to teach Jodi the traditions of Cajun people. I told her she was a Texan and had to eat jalapenos. "Suck that burrito through the bottle," I joked. "Come on. You're a Texan. Your mamma and I are going to eat crayfish, but you have to eat burritos and tacos."

She began to grow up, and as she did, I would buy dresses for her. We would dress Jodi up in these pretty little dresses, and people would say, "Boy, you've got good taste." They didn't think I had taste because I looked like I was so full of the devil, but I knew pretty baby clothes when I saw them. They'd ask, "Is this your daughter?" when they saw us together.

"Isn't that a miracle?" I'd say.

"Yeah."

Time passes so quickly. It seemed like only yesterday that she was a baby. But then pretty soon she was getting married. My little baby girl was getting married, and I couldn't believe how quickly the time had gone by. I'll never forget when we walked down that aisle. I had her on my arm to give her away, and I was so proud of her. I walked her up to the platform, took the veil off and kissed her. I shook the groom's hand and said, "You're on your own now, Partner."

"Okay, Mr. Jesse," he said.

Then I walked up onto the platform to perform the ceremony, and the first thing I said was, "There's no divorce in this family." I looked right at that boy who was standing next to my daughter.

"You hear me?" I asked him. "You love this woman?"

"Yes!" he said.

"Look at her," I said. "She's beautiful. Look at how beautiful she is."

"I think so too, Mr. Duplantis," he said.

"Take pictures now," I told him, "because one day she may come walking up to you without all the makeup and nice clothes."

Anyway, I said all that just to tell you how special Jodi is. But I knew she was going to be that way years before she walked down that aisle. Why? Because I wasn't at the casino trying to gamble on my child growing up to know Jesus. I knew I had a relationship with Jesus and He would do what He said. So I decided to take His Word at face value and pray for what I wanted - my child to serve the Lord and marry a man who would too.

I prayed that way for everything in my life. For example, every time I prayed over my body to be healed, it was healed. When I prayed over my wallet to receive finances, it got full. Everybody thought, "who do you think you are? "

I'm not a gambler. You don't need to know how to hold 'em or know when to fold 'em. Not in God's Word. When you pray, you can know the answer's already been sent, bless God. You can pick up God's blessings by the barrell full, if you've got the guts to do it. Get out of that tradition, that stuff that makes the Word of God of no effect. It's not the gospel casino. It's the Word!

That's how I came to have a beautiful daughter just like I prayed for. It's called getting your prayers answered.

Source: Jambalaya for the Soul by Jesse Duplantis
Excerpt permission granted by Harrison House Publishers

Author Biography

Jesse Duplantis
Web site: Jesse Duplantis Ministries
 
Jesse Duplantis is a dynamic evangelist who has traveled throughout the world since 1978 preaching the Gospel of Jesus Christ. He is the founder of Jesse Duplantis Ministries (JDM), which has its International Headquarters in America and additional offices in the United Kingdom and Australia.
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