I love my children more than life. I’d do anything for them.
When my little girl, Jess, was a baby she got a splinter in her foot. She didn’t understand why I was “torturing” her but I was digging it out with a needle because I didn’t want it to get infected.
The pain I inflicted was to protect her.
A father begins to know his children’s cries; some are desperate and terrified, requiring immediate attention. Others are the result of taking a non-hazardous, but temporarily painful, spill. With the former, I go running to her. With the latter, I smile and encourage her to get up.
It may SEEM I’m not there for her, but I never left. I just know she can grow stronger by standing up, wiping her tears and moving on.
When my wife and I moved her from our bed to her own, she felt abandoned and scared. She didn’t realize it was to teach her independence. Plus, I was right there, just on the other side of the door, feeling melancholy and asking God to give her strength to make it through the night.
She would ask for things, as all kids do. Sometimes I’d say “yes” and other times “no.” It wasn’t to pick on her or make her life miserable, but because most of the time, I knew best. I’d been there. I’d made my own mistakes and was trying to protect her.
When she became a teenager, we didn’t fudge on her curfew. Her mama and I knew what kind of people preyed on young girls and we tried to shield her from that.
When she ran away in rebellion, and turned her back on us for a brief time, we never quit loving her. She chose to be away from us for a spell, but we were always there waiting for her to come back.
She stepped outside our realm of protection and we couldn’t protect her like we wanted, but we never left. We never gave up.
One glorious day she came running back into our arms and has never left. All was forgiven and once more, all was good and right in the world.
It ain’t easy being a parent, but we do our best, even when kids yell at us for not giving them their way. Even when they think we’re ignoring them. And yes, even when they think we’re being too hard on them.
They can’t understand why we keep them closer sometimes than others, not allowing them to do certain things.
But we know what’s best and only seek to help our children grow and learn and thrive.
Now, picture yourself as the child and GOD as the Father and read all of the above again. Maybe it’ll help you the next time you think He’s picking on you, or ignoring you, when in fact, maybe He’s just pulling the splinter out. Or, perhaps He’s encouraging you to get up on your own because He knows you CAN.
Maybe He believes in you much more than you believe in yourself.
He’s right there with you. He just wants you to grow stronger.
Hope this helps.
Blessings.
Broken People 