"I Love You, My Daddy"

"I love you, my Daddy!" is a sweetly spoken phrase my granddaughter has started saying to her father. It sounds so special and sweet that she could probably get away with just about anything using that phrase. But she also often accompanies it with kisses...melting all hearts in range...

I thought about this unique expression of hers. She says it most of the time spontaneously, and not to get around discipline. She says it when she sees her daddy come in to the house. She says it when he leaves in the truck. She also says a similar phrase to her mom and brothers. She always includes the "my" and tacks on the relationship status.

I am not sure where she picked up this little habit. None of her friends or any family members use it. It seems to be something that came straight from her little heart.

The more I hear those words, the more meaningful they are. A little child, just three years old, is expressing spontaneously her love of family, marking ownership of each one.

I need to do that with God. I need to say "I love you, MY God!" Even better, "I love You, MY Father!" AND even better, "I love You, MY Daddy!" My relationship with Him needs to grow more intimately daily. I need to find delight in His prescence and comfort in His embrace. I need to need Him just like my little girl! I need to declare Him as MINE! And to know Him so intimately that calling Him "Daddy" seems completely right.

I know most of us had imperfect earthly fathers. Mine was among the better one.s, but even so, lacked ability to completely meet my needs and extend comfort and help. He lacked the ability to understand my needs. He lacked the desire to really get to know me as a unique person. But my Heavenly Father does not!

Too many fathers have hurt and abused. Sometimes it was intentional, stemming from their own pain and struggles with their own demons. Sometimes, it was unintentional. An unkind word spoken harshly in a tense moment; A half-hearted reply or reaction to something of significance in our lives; a word intended to be used as a joke...all these can have lasting impact on our vision of a father. And we tend to interject that vision upon God.

We must know this: He is NOT a man that He should lie, be violent, or hurt us in any way, intentional or not. God is incapable of failing us. He can only LOVE to the greatest degree. He cannot speak harsh words of irritation. He cannot ignore our significant moments because He created them

Healing Scars

When the scars upon my heart
Met the scars upon His hands,
Something changed forever,
Becoming something very grand.

Bleeding within my chest,
Trembling with fear and shame;
My heart heard a gentle Voice
Softly call my name.

It was barely beating;
Hardly worth the life;
Broken very often
And stabbed with many a-knife!

Wounds of disappointments
And redirected prayers;
Confidence depleted
Made heartbeats hard to bear.

Scars of intentions
Misunderstood by friends,
Oozing self-resentment
Self-pity did defend.

Inadequacies coursed through
Veins of broken dreams.
My bleeding heart stood gaping...
Death's nearing rapidly it seems!

But the Voice whispers gentler
Yet louder, to my heart.
Tender hands stretched out
To offer a fresh start.

Hesitation filled my soul.
Yet, with shaking stance
I offered up my broken heart
For yet another chance.

And then the hands opened wide,
And much to my surprise
I found a loving touch of God
Understood my great demise.

For there upon those open palms
Were nail scars so deeply driven,
Oozing out the love
And forgiveness freely given.

And those scars upon His hand
Touched the scars upon my heart;
And though His scars grew deeper,
Mine simply did depart.

There was my heart, no longer scarred
Nor heavy as a stone...
But newly fresh- a heart of flesh!
His scars have cured my own!

Yes, when the scars upon my heart
Touched the scars upon His hands
I was changed forever,
And am becoming something grand!

by Charlotte Saben 8/26/10

A Lesson From King David

King David was a man. He was just a simple shepherd boy with some musical talent, when God called him to become a king. But he didn't become that king overnight. Not even over the next couple of years. He had a lot of growing up to do. And he made some errors along the way. He left us a legacy to learn from.

We can learn some things NOT to do from King David. We all know he never should have dwelt on the sight he saw of Bathsheba sunning herself...but that's another lesson for another day.

Today, I believe God is showing me something very significant about our society, and how easy it is to get involved in the wrong kind of politics.

David was not exactly a politician. Yet, he had a substantial following of men ready to defend and die for him, even before he became king. It is true, that God had already chosen him, annointed him, and called him. Yet, David continued to b e a servant of King Saul, comforting him when he was bombarded by fear and anxiety attacks. Even after it became evident that King Saul was no longer the best ruler for Israel, David did not usurp his authority or brag about the facts of his anointing. He quietly grew, knowing in his heart that some day, God would make room for him.

In today's world, we currently have a very controversial leader. Many Christians voted for him, believing the previous administration had erred greatly in important issues. Some now regret it. Others do not.

What concerns me here, more than the decisions that the President is making, is the daily decisions many many Christians make to undermine him. Personally, I will say that I did not vote for him, nor can I support many of his choices. I too, was among those who passed on jokes and made fun of him. I referred to him in ways that were not Christ-like.

And then, I read the story, AGAIN, about David and Saul. Saul had become so fearful of losing his kingdom, that he set out to kill DAvid. The saga takes up several chapters in the Bible. But the story that stands out to me, is where King Saul goes into a cave to respond to a bodily function, and David and his men are already inside. Saul doesn't notice them, but they notice him. One even suggests to David that he sneek up behind him and kill him. After all, God had already anointed David to be the nnext king...

David toys with the thought, and then slips up behind and cuts off a piece of the kingly garment, and pockets it. Later, he produces it to proce he could have killed the king. But DAvid said, "I will not harm God's anointed." He honored the position of the king. (By the way, originally, Saul was chosen by the people because they disliked the previous administrative dealings. They did not want a theocrasy, but wanted to be ruled by men.)

I coorelate that story to our current situation. God did not ordain our President and anoint him...or DID He? Supposedly we prayed for the election. Supposedly we voted with our conscience. And yet, here we have a controversial guy many do not like. Oour system is run by the people (suppoosedly). God did not "choose" the president ahead of time. Supposedly. Now I wonder, IF God's people, who are called by His name (Christins) humbled themselves and prayed...then we must accept that God MUST have had a hand in rising up this current adminsitration, no matter what we think of it. And the Bible, which we believe to be the Word of God, says clearly to pray for our leaders.

Should we not take the same stand as DAvid did? Should we not resist harming the man in the position of leadership? It seems to me that the REAL enemy of our land, and our spirits, the devil himself, has gotten quite a hayday going with hateful words and jokes. We are undermining the authority of the man that God has allowed to lead us.

The Word says nothing about any man delivering us or healing our land...it is GOD who shall do this...through PRAYER, not jokes, and political upheaval. I am not saying we should not exercise our rights to speak up against what we believe is wrong...or to voice our opinions. But our opinions that deride an authority can only be siding with evil. I am not saying we should not stand up and be counted and declare what we feel....but I see this as two different things here.

1. We should responsibly speak up for righteousness and demand our laws be based in it.
2. We should support through PRAYER ALL the leaders God has currently allowed in our society.
3. By allowing our hearts to become bitter, hateful, or fearful, we are not declaring the Kingdom of God for our country.

I think this is an evil sly undermining of America...not by our President or ANY administration, but by the forces of evil, who divides the Christians, causes our hearts to not be one, causes our hearts to be fearful and dissatisfied....thus preventing us from the true power of God.

Think about it please! I am no longer going to be participating in anything divisive or unproductive or demeaning towards leadership. I will not be sending any forwards of political jokes or rumors of things undermining our President. I will send prayer requests of information that has been substantiated for which we need to join in prayer. I will admonish my friends and brothers and sisters to pray and to surrender our hearts to God's love. I will honor the position of authority that God has graciously allowed us to maintain in this country for over 23o years! AND I will speak up to my leaders, expressing my concerns, in a godly fashion. And I will use the power of my vote to say what I mean!

Let us take to heart the verse about humbling ourselves. (Who of us would even want to be President right now?) Let us PRAY! Let us pray with contrite and upright hearts, fully surrendered to God. Let us lay aside the agendas, the fear, the jokes and comments, and truly seek the Lord for our great nation.