Dads really make a difference…

Dads really make a difference…

I thank God to have been blessed with a dad who loved me well. The increasingly uncommon privilege of growing up with a solid father figure made a remarkable difference in my eventual ability to understand, to accept, and to feel my Heavenly Father’s love.

After reading those first two sentences, some of you might be ready to stop reading. Maybe you didn’t have that kind of experience or your dad isn’t around anymore. It’s hard. Hang in there with me…

I’ve got some encouragement that applies whether we have/had a great dad or not.

1. God is still in the business of healing “father wounds.”

That doesn’t mean your relationship with your dad will change. It means our Heavenly Father can heal and fill the hole left by our earthly one. It also means we can start to see our earthly father through the eyes of our Heavenly Father.

2. God can and will give us many spiritual father figures if we open ourselves up to it. 

Through marriage, I was blessed with a second Dad, my father-in-law, who has modeled God the Father to me and taught me countless things. Through the Church, countless men have loved me as spiritual fathers and discipled/deepened me. Truth is, it’s unrealistic to put all the pressure of our relational needs on any one person. That’s a recipe for disappointment. We need lots of spiritual father figures but we have to challenge ourselves to allow them into our lives.

3. God can help you become what you did not experience.

If you didn’t have a great dad, by God’s power you can become a great dad. If you had a great dad, God can use that foundation to make you an even greater one! I get that many of you reading this are women. The point isn’t about becoming a great dad per se but rather about becoming the healed Christian God wants you to be.

Dads really make an amazing difference. And our Heavenly Father is the ultimate “Difference Maker” who wants to fill every gap between who you are and who He is calling you to be.

We plan to appreciate dads and spiritual father figures who are making a difference on Sunday. I sincerely hope you’ll join us. We’ll have…

• Lots of FUN…
• Dad jokes for days.
• A hilariously ridiculous push-up contest.
• A soda float station (root beer, coke, orange soda, etc.).
• A “hug a dad” station.

Hope to see you there!

Pastor Kyle