Father's Day

God has been messing with me all week about Father's Day. At first I thought I was supposed to say something about it at LifeQuest Church this morning but as it got closer to this morning it became more obvious that what God was saying to me was for my blogging.

I have a different outlook this year than I have had in the past - as many of you know my Dad and Stepdad both died this year within a month of each other so this is my first year without a father figure for me. At the same time, Kymberly (my daughter) is out of town with her fiance where they are gone for pre-marital counseling with Pastor Darin - making this the first year one of my children was away at the same time.

As a son and a father I know that sometimes hard decisions have to be made. It would be great if we could always make the decision that our kids want us to make - to give them everything they want - to be what they want us to be. But we can't. It is our job to make the decision that has to be made even if our kids think it is unfair - to withhold things they want for their own good - to be what we have to be even if it feels like it hurts us and them at the time.

Now we are just a shadow of the type of Father that God wants to be to us. as much as we want to make the right decisions our human emotions and desires sometimes get in the way - our lack of knowledge about all circumstances cause us to fail in our goal of making the right decision. God doesn't have to work under those handicaps - he as the perfect Father cam make the right decisions - to always have the best interest of his children at the forefront.

And yet, we turn away and run away from Him. Some of us call Him evil and refuse to give him the respect that He is due. We justify our actions by what we see and our own circumstances. we refuse to see the big picture. And when we sometimes do finally realize what we have done we claim that what we have done is so bad, so evil that there is no way back - that we are not worthy of our father's love.

As a father - as a pale shadow of the Father let me assure you that when our children come and say they are sorry, that they messed up, can they come back - that we will welcome them with outstretched arms. Though we know that sometimes our children have to walk some rough and rocky roads before they realize that all we want for them is their best - we never cease being their Father - we are always ready and waiting for them.