“Though our feelings come and go, God’s love for us does not.”
At age four, all little girls love their daddy. I remember our daughter, Megan, dancing on Tim’s feet as a little girl. She looked up at him with dazzled eyes and a glowing smile. She knew she was the apple of his eye and basked in that assurance. She still does.
Becca’s story is a little different. Like most little girls, she always waited for her daddy to make that last turn and come up the driveway each night. One evening, with her nose pressed up against the window pane and condensation forming on the window from every breath she took, she waited. And waited. But no dad—he never came. She never saw him again, and she dealt with his abandonment for the rest of her life.
An absent father is an unfortunate reality that cuts into the heart of a child more deeply than we tend to realize. Nearly 40 percent of America’s children will wake up in a home tomorrow where their biological fathers don’t live. Even more troubling, nearly half of those kids haven’t seen their dads in the past 12 months.
And one question pierces the heart of all these children, especially little girls: Do you really love me, Daddy? Knowing whether or not your dad really loves you is difficult if you don’t know him or struggle a lot in your relationship with him. Whether they realize it or not, many women spend their whole lives seeking the answer to this most critical life question. Some never find it. They never break free.
The same is often true with our Heavenly Father, whom we can’t physically see or touch. Too often our experience with God mirrors the relationship we have—or don’t have—with our earthly fathers. But the two really have no connection. To fully embrace God’s love we must first understand how much God really loves us—regardless of the status of our relationship with our earthly father.
In this chapter, you’ll discover how to find God’s love for you, and you’ll find assurance that nothing can keep you from the everlasting love He has to offer.
Taken from Extraordinary Women: Secrets to Discovering the Dream God Created for You by Julie Clinton.
