As a father of three young girls, I need to point my girls to their Heavenly Father, God. There’s a lot more we can accomplish together by leaning into God as opposed to trying to solve life’s challenges on our own. Having little girls, we’re inundated with the image of fairytales and knights in shining armor coming to the rescue. It’s important for my girls to know that the greatest Hero that they can know is Jesus Christ.

Fatherhood Mens Designer Suits Shane Barnard and Shane Everett. Long nights on the road have been replaced with 2 a.m. feedings and princess fairytales. Worries about broken trailers and gear have been upstaged by deeper dreams and desires. With three daughters between them—Olive, Lillian and Lucy—the longtime college friends have a wealth of inspiration staring up at them every day.

Life looks a lot different for Shane & Shane from their days at Texas A&M University. In nearly 13 years, the evergreen college favorites have toured with everyone from Mat Kearney to David Crowder*Band, garnered three Dove Awards and sold more than 500,000 records. The two men are not only husbands and fathers now, but they’re also on staff at a local church in Dallas where they lead worship each month and teach a class at the church’s ministry leadership school, allowing them to put down roots and be involved in true biblical community for the first time.

It’s through this lens of fatherhood and community that Shane & Shane’s new record, The One You Need (Fair Trade Services), was born. In fact, Barnard began writing the title track—a poignant letter from daddy to daughter—a week before his daughter Lucy was born. “It’s the first desperate feeling of, ‘I want my girl to know Jesus.’ And that’s really what it boils down to,” said Barnard, who is married to singer/songwriter Bethany Dillon. “You do the best you can, parent the best you can to one chief end, that this new soul would find and love Jesus Christ.”

Everett, the father of two daughters, helped Barnard finish the song over the last year. He echoes Barnard’s sentiments. I had the opportunity to interview Shane Everett about title track "The One You Need."

Please tell me the background message behind the song.

I have two little girls and Shane Barnard has one. A little over a year ago before Shane and Bethany’s daughter, Lucy, was born, the song started to take form. It was more of a country-type song at first. As Shane and I discussed the idea for the song, we both realized that if there is One thing we want our girls to know, it’s Jesus. That’s what we want as our legacies. That was the heart of the song and it took shape over a couple of months as we recorded the song. We went through the competing worldviews and have realized that the song has meaning to all parents, not just of little girls. Ultimately we want our girls to know Him.

Did you base the song on any Bible verses?

Psalm 73:25-26: “Whom have I in heaven but You? And there is none upon earth that I desire besides You. My flesh and my heart fail; But God is the strength of my heart and my portion forever.’

What's the takeaway message for listeners?

I think the legacy we want to leave for our kids is for them to know Christ. Hopefully, we do all we can to exemplify what we say we believe. As a parent, that’s my prayer—that my daughters see the things I say backed up with my life, and that they will know the Lord. As new parents, there is One thing we want our little girls to know. One Man. The only One who will satisfy her every need. The only One who will never let her down. The only One who can provide a “happily ever after.” Jesus. My life verse is Psalm 73:25-26, and I pray for my daughters to know the Truth that God is the strength of our hearts forever.

Lyrics:
Hey, hey sweet daughter
I’m so proud to be your father
Each day is like a gift from God
Hey, hey sweet daughter
There’s no music like your laughter
And your smile is like the rising sun
You know I’ve loved you from the start
So come in close, take my hand
While Daddy shares his heart

I wish that I could be your everything
Be the one to give you all the things you need
Sometimes I’m gonna let you down
There’s Someone if you just believe
He’ll be your hero like He’s always been for me
Darling, Jesus is the One you need

No matter what you walk through He will always love you
Just the way you are
For there's nothing in this world
That I want for my baby girl
Than to be happy ever after
The story of your life is still untold
I pray the King of all the universe
Would make your heart His home

I wish that I could be your everything
Be the one to give you all the things you need
Sometimes I’m gonna let you down
There’s Someone if you just believe
He’ll be your hero like He’s always been for me
Darling, Jesus is the One
Who will never leave
He’s been there all along
Oh, when you’re ready you can find true love

Matthew Henry’s commentary: “He was hereby quickened to cleave the more closely to God, and very much confirmed and comforted in the choice he had made of him. His thoughts here dwell with delight upon his own happiness in God, as much greater then the happiness of the ungodly that prospered in the world. He saw little reason to envy them what they had in the creature when he found how much more and better, surer and sweeter, comforts he had in the Creator, and what cause he had to congratulate himself on this account. He had complained of his afflictions but this makes them very light and easy, All is well if God be mine. We have here the breathings of a sanctified soul towards God, and its repose in Him, as that to a godly man really which the prosperity of a worldly man is to him in conceit and imagination: Whom have I in heaven but thee? There is scarcely a verse in all the psalms more expressive than this of the pious and devout affections of a soul to God; here it soars up towards Him, follows hard after Him, and yet, at the same time, has an entire satisfaction and complacency in Him.”

As a Christian father of three little girls, this song really ministers to me. If you know Jesus, then you know the ultimate answer to the quest for love can only be found in Him. The song is vulnerable and honest, and I love the lyrics “He’ll be your hero like He’s always been for me, Darling, Jesus is the One, Who will never leave.” As earthly fathers and mothers, we’ll pass away, but Jesus is the same yesterday, today and forever and He’ll never leave or forsake us. Like Shane Barnard and Shane Everett, I want nothing more than for my three daughters—Natalie, Cassandra and Bethany to each know personally “Darling, Jesus is the One you need.” Amen to that!

(Check out the music video.)