Fathers be good to your Daughters (and vice versa)

I feel like I am in a new season of learning my identity with God on a much deeper level. I think it's amazing how limitless all of this is - I feel like I have received a lot from Him in this area, but I have realized that I need more.

Starting with PT, God has totally been inviting me to be His daughter. There were so many times in Ecuador when I could hear Him teaching me lessons about being a child, specifically His child. If you know me well, you know that my relationship with my dad is really complicated and difficult for a variety of reasons. In the midst of that, God has been way intentional in healing parts of my heart as they were ready to receive it.  This is definitely a season of more - Learning to see Him as Father is making me an even better daughter.  I didn't sign up for this, nor did expect it, but I feel like this season is equipping me to be a better wife, an amazing parent someday, and an even more enthusiastic lover of life.

This is the kind of relationship and the kind of Father I am discovering: 

• Little girls who have a healthy relationship with their dads are confident and humble - they know where they stand with their dad; they know they are wanted and loved and do not have to pursue attention elsewhere.
• Women who have a healthy relationship with their dads are interdependent - They are able to do things on their own, but still depend on their dads for love and support.
• Fathers balance the invitation of unconditional love and acceptance and the challenge of pushing their daughters to reach their greatest potential.
• Great dads balance giving their daughters what they need and want and teaching their daughters to to access those things on their own.
• They fight. In they end, they both feel heard, understood, and loved.
• Good dads know what they are talking about and give solid advice to their daughters who, in turn, receive and apply it.
• Daughters obey their fathers not because they have to, but because they want to out of respect and appreciation for his authority.
• Little girls whose dads can do anything and give them everything are completely fearless.
• Dads don't let their daughters go hungry, naked, or unsheltered. They will do anything to protect them, make every sacrifice necessary to provide.
• They spend quality time together. Time marked by delighting in each other and becoming closer.  

What I have been learning is that I cannot get closer to God, my Father, without letting Him free me from the resentments I hold towards my earthly dad.  It's simply impossible.  Painful.  Wonderful. Humbling. The more I see that He loves me, the more I can admit that I am wrong when I have overstepped my bounds.  The more I understand about the reoccurring miracles that came from His sacrifice, the more I feel convicted to forgive things that once seemed irreparable.  For everything that I lack from my dad, my Father gives to me a hundred fold.  I have watched Him provide for me over and over again.  I have felt His comforting embrace time and time again.  I have been challenged by His sweetness and selflessness more times than I can count. 

This is only the start of all of this.  Love.