A Father’s Point of View
Not long ago I began to wonder if I love my daughter too much. I mean, I love her in a way that can’t be described. I think about her every minute I’m awake. She makes me smile even when I’m having a terrible day or going through a trial. All I have to do is think about her laughter or her love of things we adults never notice – clouds, airplanes, buttercups, ladybugs, butterflies, the stars and moon, just to name a few; all the things I never take time to enjoy. And it brightens up whatever situation I’m in. Sometimes at night I go into her room and watch her sleep, and I wonder what she’s dreaming about. At four years old, she is untarnished by the world’s filth and has no worries about anything that’s happening in the world. So it made me think: Do I love my daughter more than God? God has ways of putting our priorities in order when He wants to. So I prayed and told God that He knows I always want to put Him first in my life. And I asked Him if it was possible to love Kaitlin too much. When God answered, he did so like any good father would have. He told me that He wouldn’t have entrusted her to me and then expected me to withhold love or anything else I had from her on His account. And as long as I love Him and raise her up in the way He wants me to I’m putting Him first anyway.
Not long ago I began to wonder if I love my daughter too much. I mean, I love her in a way that can’t be described. I think about her every minute I’m awake. She makes me smile even when I’m having a terrible day or going through a trial. All I have to do is think about her laughter or her love of things we adults never notice – clouds, airplanes, buttercups, ladybugs, butterflies, the stars and moon, just to name a few; all the things I never take time to enjoy. And it brightens up whatever situation I’m in. Sometimes at night I go into her room and watch her sleep, and I wonder what she’s dreaming about. At four years old, she is untarnished by the world’s filth and has no worries about anything that’s happening in the world. So it made me think: Do I love my daughter more than God? God has ways of putting our priorities in order when He wants to. So I prayed and told God that He knows I always want to put Him first in my life. And I asked Him if it was possible to love Kaitlin too much. When God answered, he did so like any good father would have. He told me that He wouldn’t have entrusted her to me and then expected me to withhold love or anything else I had from her on His account. And as long as I love Him and raise her up in the way He wants me to I’m putting Him first anyway.
Matthew 7:11 says, “If ye then, being evil, know how to give good gifts unto your children, how much more shall your Father which is in heaven give good things to them that ask Him?”
All too often we think of God as a large, powerful lightening and thunder storm ready to strike us down at our first mess-up. In reality He is exactly what this verse calls Him – our Father in Heaven – and he wants to do good things and give good things to those who ask Him. And God proved this when He gave His best…His one and only Son.
This is the Monday after Easter and we’ve all been thinking and talking about the great sacrifice Jesus made for us, and wonderful it was. God also made a big sacrifice for us: His Son, His only “real” child. He watched as His Son was born in a manger and watched as He grew up. He saw Him as a young teen left in Jerusalem by His family, saw them return to find Him in the temple sitting in the midst of the doctors of Hebrew law, both hearing and asking questions (Luke 2:46). God saw His son baptized by John the Baptist and spoke from Heaven saying, “This is My beloved Son; in Thee I am well pleased.” (Luke 3:21-22) His Son fed thousands with a boy’s lunch. God watched as that same innocent Son was spat on by evil men, slapped, mocked, humiliated, whipped, given a fake trial complete with a framing, was crucified and murdered.
I can’t even stand to think about it, and God watched it all happen. As you go throughout your day today, try to think about it from a father’s point of view.
Many Blessings!
Bro Kevin Winebarger
CMBC Facebook Devotional Writer
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