Fathers

This post has taken me this long to compose and share. This is a real sensitive one for me.
Considering that Father’s day was celebrated over a week ago, this would seem like a late post. It isn’t. I just needed to find the right words to pen down.

Last year, I listened to a song that Chris Tomlin and Pat Barrett sang about God being the good father. Those are some of my favourite lyrics ever. Words that i constantly listen to over and over. This song speaks to my heart in a very beautiful way.

As I listened to that song for the first time, I just cried. I cried because I started to recall all the experiences I have had with human fathers. I can say that most of the father figures I grew up with were not good fathers. I was hurt by those that were supposed to protect me. For many years, I had a sad picture of dads. They were a disappointment. My childhood was not pleasant as a result.

My son’s dad, with his absence from our lives has not made matters any better. It seems like fathers in my life have distorted my reality of who fathers are meant to be. It was just a crafted scheme of the enemy to bring this kind of deception.

I could have easily stayed in that state of thinking that fathers are bad but God has been showing me over and over that I am not without a good daddy. That I have always had a good father and he would never forsake me or cause me harm.

Beginning this year, I think the loudest message I have received over my life is that I am a child of the King and He is good and He loves me. I have a good father.
I am not making this up, His word tells me I am His daughter. There is a lot of that confirmation in the scriptures but i will use two.

1 John 3:1 tells me “See what kind of love the Father has given to us, that we should be called children of God; and so we are.
Ephesians 3:14-15, Paul prays, "For this reason I bow my knees before the Father, from whom every family in heaven and on earth is named…

God’s fatherhood is forever and it cannot be tainted by the way our earthly fathers reflect fatherhood. The pictures and experiences we have of our fathers should not limit our ability to understand God’s Eternal love for us, His children. Jesus Christ made a way for us to be embraced lovingly, Eternally by God our Father.

This year’s father’s day wasn’t sad/weird. I was celebrating my daddy. The Good Father. And I pray constantly for my son, that his picture of a father will not be stained by his dad’s never being there. I am glad that my son knows Jesus and he is so much aware that God is his father and He loves him so much.

I have also seen very good dads around me. I have seen this through my friends at church. My Pastor and friend is a very good dad to his two babies. I see a father who loves his children and who would do anything to protect them. I know now that there are good fathers and I thank God for them.

How I pray that every dad will be the person that God intended him to be; a father reflecting God the Good Father.

JOY NO MATTER WHAT.

Huge statement! With the way the year has been going for me, choosing to agree with these words has not been easy. The LORD however has been preparing me in more ways than I had anticipated and  because of that I can say it is possible to embrace Joy No matter what one is going through.

To start with, I have gone through irritable harsh times over and over and there would be no reason for me to be joyful (in a typical world). But I am realizing daily that i am not living typical. I am much more than that. Realizing my identity  has made things much more meaningful. There have been painful, sad days and heartbreaks but I have enjoyed a few happy days.

Illnesses have been constantly invading my home. My  Hamlet has not enjoyed a single full month free from sickness. My Ma was recently hospitalized and I thought I was going to lose her. I felt helpless. It was a scary time for me. I am still amazed at how God calmed my heart during that visit with ma in hospital. He kept reassuring me over and over that the enemy does not get to win. And as I watched her, I had to keep holding back tears and telling myself that it is well. Ma is still battling illness but I am not afraid. God is in charge.

At church yesterday, the preacher’s theme for his sermon was JOY NO MATTER WHAT, and that is where I got my inspiration for this blog post. I enjoyed the message. He preached from Philippians 3. But before that, he went over the first and second chapters of this letter briefly.

Paul is in prison but even in prison, 17 times he says rejoice, be happy. Be joyous. Of all places, a prison is not a vacation that one can gladly write mail to loved ones encouraging them to rejoice. But Paul knows that he has something that is far bigger than comfortable living conditions. Something that even prison can’t take away. And as such he says rejoice.

With all that is going wrong, I can celebrate what is going right and I will find Joy.

For one, My niece who came to live with me last year and who has been Muslim because both her parents are staunch Muslims, accepted Jesus in her life Nov 1st last year and she got baptized on 17th April, My birthday. What a gift Heaven was giving me on that day! Ma was still in critical state, I wanted to stay with her but the next day was the day my niece was getting baptized. I couldn’t miss that for anything in the world. I got on the bus traveled almost 5 hours back home to be with my niece and to be there on the day she was baptized. It was a day filled with so much mixed emotions. God is amazing. I can celebrate that. I can find Joy in all that HE is.

If I cannot find joy in other things, I can rejoice in knowing that I am loved. That I am saved. While we were yet sinners, Christ died for me. If I do not rejoice in the LORD, things of this world will break me. Just like how my year has been going so far, if I did not rejoice in God, I would be totally messed up.

I am not perfect yet, I may not get perfect anytime soon but I desire to seek God’s purpose for saving me. I will try to find Joy in all situations. I can celebrate that I am unique. That I have a purpose. A purpose for me. I will seek to find Joy no matter.