This past weekend, my team and I were invited to visit with a church in Argentina about an hour from where we’re staying. While we were there I got to share a little bit of my testimony at the church service on Sunday. I’d like to share it with you all.
Growing up, it was just me and my mom until I was seven years old. She had me when she was twenty-three. I never knew my biological father, he wanted nothing to do with me.
But my mom made sure I had a wonderful life. We always had a roof over our head and I never went to bed hungry. We read together every night and she always had an activity planned for us.
At seven years old I didn’t realize that something wasn’t there, though. My mom did such a good job of being mom and dad that I didn’t understand that I was missing that. But, looking back, I know that I needed a dad in my life and so did my mom.
In 1999 my mom met a man online and after talking for a while they decided to meet up in June. The day they planned to meet, though, my babysitter plans fell through so my mom took me with her.
My mom tells me now that the moment I met him, something was different. I was an extremely shy child and didn’t talk to anyone. But as soon as we met, I opened up to him. We talked and played games until I went to bed.
In August of that year, he proposed to my mom by asking to be my dad. Two years later, when I was nine, that became a reality when he adopted me, and I took his last name. He chose to be my dad then and has loved me like I was his biological daughter every day since. This has taught me so much about the difference between a father and a dad. A father can create, but doesn’t necessarily love. He becomes a dad when he loves his child. The Lord loves us in this way.
Ephesians 1:4-6 says, “For He chose us in Him before the creation of the world to be holy and blameless in his sight. In love He predestined us for adoption to sonship through Jesus Christ, in accordance with His pleasure and will — to the praise of His glorious grace, which He has freely given us in the One He loves.”
God adopted us into His own family and loves us as His own children. He isn’t just a father that created us and then left us to fend for ourselves. He stands by us, He helps us, He loves us. Like a dad. Like my dad.
