Bev is reading a book right now called "Captivating", and there was a line that she shared with me that hit me right between the eyeballs.
'What we first believe about God the Father directly comes from what we know of and have experienced from our earthly dads."
I've got three young children, all girls, (which in itself is part of God's sense of humour--I am still watching hockey by myself), and I struggle everyday with the whole parenting thing. I love my children, I delight in my children, I revel in their accomplishments (have you ever cheered on someone because they figured out how to use toilet paper?), but I am also incredibly hard on myself. For example, I went to bed with the knowledge that at some point yesterday all my children cried because of me! We walked at the beach and someone didn't want to wear a jacket in the pouring rain; another one grabbed a football out of another's hands as we were playing tackle football in the living room/kitchen, and finally, I wouldn't let our youngest one take a really large toy to bed with her. Tears everywhere.
So I read that quote, and I wonder what our daughters are learning about our heavenly Father through me. Maybe they learned that God is playful, that God is just, that God is emotional, that God loves community, that God loves his creation, that God really loves hockey, and that God is forgiving. I suppose the one characteristic that I may not share with God is that I need a lot of forgiveness, and I need to accept the fact that my own children have forgiven me; even if they don't want to wear that jacket at Crescent Beach in the pouring rain.