So what if daddy never said the magic words?

I may not be able to pronounce Lysa Terkeurst ‘s name  properly but she has touched my life. Among other things, Lysa runs Proverbs 31 ministries sharing (together with her team) devotions that bring a refreshing God’s perspective to today’s busy woman.

In her own blog, Lysa tells a story of one of her earliest memories. She was eight.  They were poor but every Easter her mom bought her sister and her a new dress.

One evening she took out this beautiful dress that her mom had got her that Easter, and put it on. Then she fixed her hair the best way her 8 year old self could.

As she was getting dressed she remembers thinking. Maybe tonight is the night. May be tonight is the night that my daddy will finally tell me “I love you.”

So she wore her dress and fixed her hair and walked up to where her daddy was in the living room “on a recliner chair, with a beer in one hand and a remote in the other”. There she stood in her beautiful dress and tried to look as graceful as possible.

But he didn’t even notice her.

So she “did what any 8 year old with a pretty dress on could do”. She started twirling around and around. “And as her dress flowed out, her heart cried out, daddy, do you love me? Daddy, am I significant?”

What breaks my heart in this story is how Lysa thought she had to DO something to be worthy of her father’s love….

Years later she learnt that not even the love of a great husband could make up for the void left by a father who did not love her. A father who told her “You know Lysa, I never wanted children, especially not a girl. ”

Only a super natural power could do that.

Her life changed when she learnt that she didn’t have to do anything to make the heavenly father love her, that it is not about what you do or not do, it is about who you are – a child of the most high God. Her life changed when she learnt that she could call God, daddy.

• Father! – to God himself we cannot give a holier name.  ~William Wordsworth

What a honor, what a privilege, that each one of us, no matter what we have done or failed to do can call the creator of the universe, daddy.

And THANK GOD for all fathers who live up to their title. I salute you!

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