My father’s name is John. I couldn’t have had a better one! I never doubt that he loves me or that he would make his way to Mars and back if it meant saving my life or making me smile. I’ve seen my dad tear apart the world just trying to make me better.
My father takes care of me because he loves me. He loves me enough to:
Make me buy gas when it’s -50 degrees outside.
Give me chores and responsibility.
Come to my basketball games & lacrosse games.
Encourage me to be the best person I can be.
In fact, he loves me so much that he is more concerned with the quality of my character than my list of accomplishments, my talents, and my weaknesses, or the number of shoes in my closet.
Sometimes it takes growing up to see that what your parents did for you was out of love. I was 18 when I had someone tell me. His name is Johnathan Macris and he is a missionary in Athens, Greece through an organization called Hellenic Ministry [HM]. He visited our church when I was 18. Between church services, he talked to me about the relationship between fathers and daughters because his daughter was getting ready for college just like me.
He told me that all the worrying my father was doing over my future was because my dad loved me. He told me that my dad encouraging me to stay away from certain behaviors was out of love. And that all my dad wanted to do was keep me safe. I was told that watching a daughter grow up and go off on her own is the hardest things a dad can do. Johnathan said this is because, as daughters, we will no longer be under our fathers wing and easy to protect. Johnathan told me that everything my dad did for me, no matter how much it annoyed me, was because my father loves me.
Johnathan gave me perspective!
Jonathan Macris is on the Right in the Blue Shirt
I am preparing to leave the country for eleven months, and needless to say, my dad is worried about me. He is worried because he can’t keep me safe and he doesn’t want me to get hurt. Of course, I wish he wouldn’t worry, but how else would I know he loves me?
It is my dad’s job to protect me, to raise me to be a good person, to love me, and to prepare me for the world. My dad did an excellent job. It is because of how much my father loves me that I am able to take the steps of faith I am taking now. My [earthly] father has modeled the love of my heavenly Father for me. Because of my dad’s love for me, I know that God will take care of me, that He will protect me, that He loves me, that He will provide for me, and that He will develop my character. Because of my dad’s love for me, I am able to trust the care of my heavenly Father as I go out into the world.
Because of you, Dad, I am following your example and trusting the guidance of God the Father. Because I know how much you love me, Dad, I am weak at the thought that God my Father loves me a million times more. It’s because of you, Dad, that I am able to take this step of faith. It is because of YOU, Dad.
I am so grateful to have a father who modeled the love of God in my life and who was able to teach my faith and dependence on God through his example. Faith wasn’t something I was directly taught, it was something that I picked up from my parents growing up.
If you feel God asking you to step out on faith and rely on him by supporting me, please click the Support Me! link on the left side of the page. Modeling faith, love, and trust in God for the people around you will make a huge difference in their lives and God will bless and take care of you just as He has taken care of me!
