Understanding the Father's Love

© By Debbie Guinn

Part 1

Daddy's Girl

"What marvelous love the Father has extended to us! Just look at it—we're called children of God ! That's who we really are!" 1 John 3:1 (MSG)  

Most little girls long to be a “Daddy's girl.” I know I did. I can't tell you how deep that longing was or how desperately hard I tried to be just that.  I would have done anything to gain my dad's love and acceptance.  I would have literally jumped off the roof or gone and played in the traffic if I had thought it would help.  However, nothing I did was ever good enough.

I felt like God had failed me. He gave me the need to be loved by a daddy, yet He didn't give me a daddy who filled that need. So, I determined I would fill that need my own way. I watched other girls' daddies love and dote on them and I imagined they were my daddy. I found fatherly qualities in teachers or youth leaders and turned to them as if they were my father. I had an extremely close relationship with my grandfather and found tenderness and compassion from him. However, the longing was still there and so the search continued. I tried to fill that longing with any man I met who showed any kind of love and acceptance of me for who I was…pastors and other father figures within the church…even bosses.

These different father figures did provide me with a sense of love and acceptance. However, the longing to be loved by my real daddy was still there. See all of these other men seemed to fade in and out, never becoming a permanent part of my life. Plus, they offered only bits and pieces for what I truly longed. None of them could love me enough to fill the deep well within my heart.

In April 2006, I attended a women's retreat at our church. The first night of the retreat, the guest speaker, Debbie Dittrich , spoke about being a Daddy's girl. She told us that God put the longing to be a Daddy's girl in all of us for a reason.  He put it there so that we would yearn for Him.  It is a longing that goes so deep that only God can fill it -- He did that on purpose so that we would want and need Him.  Even if I had the most wonderful Daddy in the world, he could never fill up that deep, deep well because God designed it so that only He could fill it. All I had to do to be a Daddy's girl was to accept Jesus Christ as my Savior.

I had accepted Christ many years ago, as a child. That meant……. I sat there that evening, fighting back tears, realizing for the first time in my life that I had a Daddy who loved me more than anybody else ever could.  He desired for me to be a girl—His girl—when I was born.  He desired me to be exactly who I am and He loves everything about me.  He will NEVER use me, abuse me or abandon me.  He will love me with a love so deep—the only love deep enough to fill that longing inside of me.

I admit, it was hard for me to grasp at first. It was hard for me to comprehend much less accept that anybody—God included—could and would love me that much.  See, I had developed the assumption that if nothing I did was good enough to gain my earthly father's love and acceptance, then certainly it wasn't enough to gain my heavenly Father's love either. After all, He was perfect and surely expected nothing sort of perfection from me. That night, however, I chose to believe---regardless of how I felt—that I was truly a Daddy's girl.

If you are reading this and have never experienced the love of our Father God, then I encourage you to simply open up your heart and receive the love that He longs to pour out on you. Crawl up into His lap and let His love fill that deep, deep void that only He can fill. Maybe you have never trusted Christ as your Lord and Savior, and therefore, you cannot experience this type of Father-child relationship. If so, I invite you to receive His love, through His Son Jesus Christ, today.

John 3:16 says that God loved you so much that He sent His Son, Jesus, to die for you so that you could live forever with Him. In 1 John 3:1 we read that God's love for us is so great that He calls us His children. He wants to be your Daddy. He gave up His own Son so that He could be. Won't you let Him come and fill your heart with His love?

If you are not sure how to have that personal relationship with God, click here for a very simple explanation and prayer.

The past two years have been an incredible journey as I have discovered what being a Daddy's Girl is all about. Last summer, I asked God to help me to grasp the width, depth, length and height of His love for me…to know His love that is beyond comprehension. ( Ephesians 3:17-19 ). It seemed impossible to be able to know something that is beyond comprehension, but I figured if Paul asked God to grant it for the Ephesians, then I could pray it for myself too. Besides, Paul goes on in the next verse ( Ephesians 3:20 ) to say that God is able to do immeasurably more than all we ask or imagine, according to his power that is at work within us, This seemed to fit the “more than I could imagine” category so I asked, believing He would answer my plea.

He has been answering that prayer, showing me more and more about His incredibly amazing love for me…and it has transformed my life. I hope to share more on this subject next month.

Pressing in to my Daddy!

Debbie

You may contact Debbie at marsguinn-heartbeat@yahoo.com .

Click here to listen to Debbie Dittrich 's entire talk on being a Daddy's Girl.