Talking to my Father God this morning and thanking for Him for His open arms anytime I want to come to Him, I thought about earthly fathers with their children, and how important it is for a child to always feel free and confident to run into his/her daddy’s lap and arms for the affection and attention they need from their daddy, or mommy too. A child truly needs to feel this, and not feel rejected or put off. Little children can be annoying or in the way of our personal what-evers, but oh how so very important it is to allow our children the right to feel accepted at any time, and affectionally favored.
I thought how very sad it is for a child NOT to feel free and confident, and why that is. What would make a child afraid of their daddy, or not sure of their daddy’s love? A man that has never known the love and forgiveness of Jesus Christ, certainly. Maybe a man who never had an affectionate dad, but rather an abusive dad. Maybe a man who simply never had a dad at home, just a mother to raise him.
I didn’t have a loving dad at home. He was a marine and wasn’t home much. When he did come home, and most the time drunk – he was mean to our mom. (I was the oldest of three daughters.) I didn’t like him at all. He enjoyed tormenting my younger sister because she was a frail fearful child. Hum, I wonder why. I was always glad when he left.
My mother told me how I stood up to him one time when I was about 8 years old. He had come home drunk trying to pick a fight with her in the hallway. I got out of bed and got between them and then looking up at him I said, “YOU LEAVE MY MOMMY ALONE!”
Like I said, I didn’t like that man, but when I met Jesus at the age of 22, I began to reach out to my dad who lived on the opposite side of the country from me and my hubby. In my heart I felt a forgiveness for him, and it’s because I knew the Lord’s forgiveness for all MY sins. I began to write letters to my dad telling him about my life, my husband and children and my love for the Lord. He told me one time when we were on the phone, “Carol, I want to hear about you and your family but not any of that Jesus bullshit.” I responded, “Well then dad, you don’t want to know me – because Jesus IS my life.” Then I hung up.
I continued to write him letters, not omitting my testimonies of the Lord of my life. Years later my dad’s second wife called me to tell me that he had passed. (He was in his fifties.) My dad was born on Halloween (October 31st) and he died on April Fool’s Day (April 1st ). Oh, he was an atheist too. God knows he had every chance to hear the Gospel of Jesus Christ, if just from me alone, and to believe. Who knows, maybe he did, even though I never heard if he did. Heaven will reveal so many things!
In America today we see all the horrible results of grown children (adults) who never had a loving strong father to raise them in the right way. I am so very thankful that MY heavenly Father reached out to me to draw me to Himself and show me His Beloved Son who died in my place to forgive my sins, and then to present His Holy Word to me (the Bible) so I could KNOW HIM, Who was, and Who is and Who is to come; Who is everything He says He is – to His children, and even to all His enemies.
I am His daughter and He is my Daddy forever! Every morning I freely and confidently run into His lap to just sit and talk to Him about everything; to ask Him for things for myself, for my husband and children, and for others I love; I ask Him to use me in any way He wants, asking Him to forgive my resistance at times. I can freely express my anger and rage to my Father God – towards our wicked and foolish leaders in this nation, and to ask Him to work in their hearts and turn them around. I ask Him to give my own children the way and the will to grow up in their most holy faith in Him, and for each of their marriages and families to be secure in Him, being pillars in society. I ask Him for my unknown brothers and sisters in other parts of the world undergoing severe persecution of their faith in His Son to have the strength to endure it – to the end.
There are so many things we can ask our Father God, in Jesus’ Name, and talk to Him about so openly, as we each live our own ‘unique’ lives. Every one of His children is His favorite. What a future we all have to look forward to with our Great Redeemer and precious perfect Father God, as the true sons and daughters of the Most High God!
“Jesus came to His own, and His own did not receive Him. But to all who did receive Him, to those who believed in His name, He gave the right to become children of God—children born not of blood, nor of the desire or will of man, but born of God.” John 1:11-13