Fathers be good to your daughters...daughters will love like you do.

So awhile back I had a message from Gregory E. Lang about his upcoming book about fathers and daughters. He's collecting stories from both fathers and daughters about their relationships, and so I sent him a small story about my dad and me. I won't share the entire thing here (as it's 3 pages long...I suppose it's not such a "small" story after all, but I'm long-winded and have plenty of memories to share about my dad!), but if you'd like to see the small part of it that Gregory Lang shared on his blog you can click here. He shares a daily diary from each story he receives. Some of what I wrote may or may not appear in his book when it comes out this fall. Either way, I'm glad to have great memories to share of my dad!

I hope with Father's Day coming up that everyone is able to show appreciation for their dads. I know that parenting is tough...not because I am a parent myself (somedays I wonder if I ever will be one...), but because I know how much of a bratty child I was! So many people have different relationships with their dads...some are close with their dads, some dads are never around, some parents are divorced, some dads are abusive, some dads are super-dads, some dads push their children too much, and so on... No matter what kind of dad you have, I hope there is pride and love and honor in your relationship.

For some who have a broken relationship with a father, it's encouraging to know a God who presents Himself in scripture as a Father. It's such great imagery for how He rears us as His children. He loves us but He has to punish us for that reason. He may be disappointed in us at times, but He won't disown us. He gives and takes away as necessary and knows what's best for us. He pushes us to do things like learn how to ride a bike without training wheels...knowing that we might fall off, but we will learn with His guiding hand. He teaches us and shows us different things about the world and life when He knows we're ready to hear it. Dads fix our cars when they're broken, and God fixes our hearts when they're broken.

There are countless parallels between earthly fathers and our Father in heaven. It might sound cliche, and it might not seem relative to those who hardly know their earthly fathers or who have one that may be an alcoholic or abusive or absent, but that's why I love the Father. He'll never fail. He'll never hurt us. He'll never leave. I'm thankful to have had two amazing Fathers.