Most of us probably grimmace with even the mere mention of our fathers. It seems like lots of us have "daddy issues." We've had bad upon worse experiences with our fathers here on Earth. And these experiences really twist our view of what a father really should be.
We view our Earthly fathers in several ways…
♦ Workaholics. They may give me everything in the world I ever wanted materially, but they never give me what I really need. TIME!
♦Controlling. Never giving me freedom to choose for myself. My friends, free time, and descisions are always dictated by them.
♦Abusive. Emotionally can be the worst. You are never good enough as a child. And physically, you fear that every move you make might not be right and you will be SEVERELY punished.
♦Selfish. Only doing what is best for their own interests. Never taking into account the rest of their families.
♦Lazy. Depending on the mother and children in the home to take care of everything and just supervising.
No, not all fathers have these qualities. There are some genuine hard-working, child-loving fathers out there. But they are really few and far between. Most children (and adults) deal with the fathers in the categories above. This leaves children craving a fathers attention and love. Most of the time they end up doing all the wrong things to get it.
So where we may be lacking the Disney definition of a father here on Earth, we have hope. As a Christian, we have been adopted into God's family. He is our new father, we are a child of God, and he is everything our Earthly father was not.
"For to us a child is born, to us a son is given; and the government shall be upon his shoulder, and his name shall be called Wonderful Counselor, Mighty God, EVERLASTING FATHER, Prince of Peace." – Isaiah 9:6
When Jesus was born that first Christmas night, a promise was made. He would become an everlasting father to us all.
"Father of the fatherless and protector of the widows is God in his holy habitation." – Psalm 68:5
"See what kind of love the Father has given to us, that we should be called Children of God." – 1 John 3:1a
I AM A CHILD OF GOD!!!
God loves me. My eternal father LOVES me. He adopted me into his family. He wants to spend time with me everyday, all the time. He cares about my dreams and desires. I don't need to do a list of times for him to care about me and be pleased with me. He accepts me, not because of anything I've done or haven't done. He wants to protect me from anything that could harm me.
When we stray from God, thinking that he's anything like our Earthly fathers. We need a reality check. He is everything they are not.
