Father!

Today is my dad’s 84th birthday!

I am blessed to be able to be with him to celebrate this special day with him and to celebrate the man who was and is so much to me!

I am among the blessed who grew up with a loving, hard-working, example-setting man. He set guidelines and boundaries in my life. I didn’t always appreciate those boundaries but within those confines I knew he loved me.

The perfect introduction to my other Father! Our Father God!

1 John 3:1a NIV “See what great love the Father has lavished on us, that we should be called the children of God! And that is what we are!”

Psalm 103:13 ESV “As a father shows compassion to his children, so the Lord shows compassion to those who fear him.”

Hebrews 12:7 ESV “It is for discipline that you have to endure. God is treating you as sons. For what son is there whom his father does not discipline.”

Proverbs 20:7 ESV “In the fear of the Lord one has strong confidence, and his children will have refuge.”

As a side note, consider reading the above passages with the word respect in place of the word fear! When I learned that the passages spoke of reverence, respect, and trust, in his authority it brought a new gentler meaning to the verses.

The Lord asks for our trust and obedience to the boundaries he sets in place respecting he as the Father, knows best! That’s the fear that’s talked about, not fear of him tasing us with a lightning bolt followed by bouts of fire and hail every time we mess up!

John 3:16 ESV “For God so loved the world, that he gave his only Son, that whoever believes in him should not perish but have eternal life.”

John 14:6 ESV “Jesus said to him, ‘I am the way, the truth and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me.”

2 Corinthians 6:18 ESV “And I will be a father to you, and you shall be sons and daughters to me, says the Lord Almighty.”

So today as I celebrate my earthly father, I celebrate my Heavenly Father who never leaves me, never forsakes me, and loves me through good and bad! Just like my dad! Just like a dad! ❤️