Skip to main content

Why I Call Him “Dad”


The way you think about God is the key to everything. Most of the world – if they believe in Him at all – think He’s a strict headmaster with a whip in His hand, ready to punish you for sneezing at the wrong time. Others think He’s some distant, far away ‘concept’, who can’t relate to our everyday realities. Some see Him as this massive unfathomable Maker of the entirety of the earth, and therefore has no time or concern for our petty lives. To me, God is simply Dad.

I won’t sit here and tell you that it’s always been like that. God and I’s relationship has gone through massive transitions over the years. Although I’ve always believed in God, for a long time, I too saw Him as ‘that far away King’ who I couldn’t quite relate to. I had no idea of who He really was, prayed empty prayers and didn’t even begin to understand the concept of grace and endless love. Although God was a reality to me, He was not real to me.

That all changed so much over the last three years. I met invaluable people who truly helped me understand the nature of God, His role as my Dad, and more importantly, how much I meant to Him. It’s important here to make the distinction between a Father, and a Dad. Anyone can be a Father – a provider, etc. – but not everyone can be a Dad – a supporter, guide, comforter, encourager and companion. This realisation changed EVERYTHING. When you develop intimacy with someone, you become comfortable. You no longer have to put up a front, tell them what you think they want to hear or act like you believe you’re supposed to when you’re around them. God became my Dad, and I started to enjoy all the benefits that came with knowing that!

Recently, on my birthday, there was a moment God and I had, where I literally felt Him smiling down on me, celebrating me. It was such a special, precious and REAL moment. In that moment, it wasn’t a Master/Servant relationship or a Dictator/Follower relationship; it was a treasured moment between a Father and a daughter. One I will hold on to for a long time, and one I wish to have many more of.

It might be that you don’t/didn’t have a father who showed you any love or appreciation, or was there when you needed him to be, or was outright physically or emotionally abusive. But I want you to know that God loves you more than anything in the world (He wouldn’t have come to die for you, if not); YOU are His world. He doesn’t want you to see Him as a Master with a whip; He wants you to know He’s your DAD – who delights in you, cherishes you and is 100% devoted to you.


Kunmi x


Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

The Simple, Practical Solution To Reading More of Your Bible

At the beginning of the year, I decided I wanted to read the entire Bible - for the second time - in a year. (I also started using these amazing reading plans on my even more amazing Bible app, YouVersion. It's awesome; check it out! )  My aim is to get more of God's word into my head, mind and heart, and as a result, get to know Him better, as... "In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was  God." (John 1:1) Simple, yeah? If God and His Word are one, then by getting to know one more, I get to know the other, right? But to achieve my goal, I obviously had to carve out more time to read God's Word.  Now, truth be told, I often find reading the Bible a little bit tedious (I'll have you know God appreciates my honesty), ESPECIALLY when it gets to certain, not-so-Jesus-loves-you-you-can-do-no-wrong-everything-is-all-GOOD chapters like Numbers, Leviticus and a few others (let's cut them some slack, shall we?). But I rea...
2 comments
Read more

What Teaching Young Kids About The Holy Spirit Taught Me

I'm lucky enough to teach a lovely, lively bunch of children at Sunday School every week. Two weeks ago, at a Saturday session at church, I had learnt more about the Holy Spirit, who He really is and why we have Him (and need Him). Immediately, I thought: Hey, this is a great lesson to teach the kids soon. Yesterday, I decided today would be the perfect day to approach this topic with my young squad. I particularly thought this was a good idea because I needed to learn more about the Holy Spirit. While preparing to teach, I researched how to go about teaching younger children about this not-so-easy topic. You hear so much about God and Jesus, but not that much about the Holy Spirit (which they affirmed today, btw). I got help from this great Sunday School website, which suggested to use a great visual analogy: An egg. An egg is made up of three parts: The shell, egg white and yolk. Although the different parts exist, it's still an egg; each part is 'folded' into ...
2 comments
Read more

What I Really Learnt About Prayer This Week

With prayer and I, it's been a mostly up-and-down relationship. We haven't always seen eye-to-eye, we've fallen out of love quite a few times, and we've oftentimes flat out ignored each other over the years. Luckily, it's been more on the 'up' lately, for which I am super glad, because God knows I need it more than anything. The real transformation came when I realised that I didn't have to say the "right" things when I prayed, speak 'Christianese' (meaningless words that God is supposed to be impressed with), or lie to God about how/what I was feeling. A good friend of mine, Jen, once said, "Don't tell God, 'Oh Lord, I just want to worship Your holy name', when in fact you are about to combust from pain, sorrow, difficulties and frustration." That statement TOTALLY changed the way I pray. Now, that's not to say that I only run to God to cry about my problems (there's ALWAYS something), and I am complet...
Post a Comment
Read more