School was out. The warm weather had arrived, and the boys and I headed up to a friend’s house for some outside play time. While the boys all played, I had some time to relax… More
School was out. The warm weather had arrived, and the boys and I headed up to a friend’s house for some outside play time. While the boys all played, I had some time to relax and catch up with a dear friend. It wasn’t very often that we had the time to just sit. Most often we simply dropped our children off at each other’s house and left with a wave. But today we sat.
We talked about family, our homeschooling adventures, and faith. And just before it was time for me to gather up the boys and head home, we sat at the kitchen table and prayed. While we had always talked to each other and encouraged each other in our faith, we had never actually sat down with each other to pray together. My friend started. As she prayed I was taken back. I listened to her words carefully to see if I was hearing her in error. I wasn’t. And as I continued to incline my ears to her all the more carefully, my heart seemed to melt under the repeated words of “Daddy” in her prayer.
When I first heard her say “Daddy” I was honestly a bit confused. But as I allowed myself to digest what she was saying, I soon realized that she was addressing God. With each new utterance, the pool of tears increased and welled up behind my closed eyelids. The dam that had held back my tears gave way to a steady stream down my cheeks. I’ve always referred to God as “Heavenly Father”. To think of calling him “Daddy” was so foreign to me.
This event happened over a decade ago, but it has had a lasting impact on how I view my relationship with God. When I was a child, I typically addressed God as “God” or “Heavenly Father” out of the respect that I had for Him. Those words became part of my adult verbiage. To this day I still think about that meeting and that prayer with my friend and often contemplate the deepness that the word “Daddy” has. There is a stark contrast between the words “Father” and “Daddy.” “Father” is a formal word, but “Daddy” is term of utter love.
It recently dawned on me that I likely never used the word “Daddy” when addressing or referring to my own father. My father left my mom when I was four years old. And while I visited my dad, our relationship was strained and void of true connection. My little heart did not have reason to call him “Daddy.” When I contemplate that word “Daddy,” I see a certain vulnerability in it. There’s a letting down of the guard and an utter surrender of protective walls. There’s an exuberant explosive love that the simple utterance of “Daddy” conveys.
I remember my then little boys bubbling with excitement as they waited for my husband to get home from work. Sometimes they would stand at the screen door looking for his truck. Other times they would simply listen for the closing of his truck door. More times than not my husband would walk through the door and would be greeted by a choir of three exclaiming ‘Daddy’. They’d drop whatever they were doing and would run to their Daddy beaming with excitement and joy from the tops of their heads all the way to their toes. My husband would give them great big hugs and more importantly, his attention and love. There was no formality in these daily interactions. There was only love. There was only ‘Daddy”.
I think about how odd those same interactions would have been had the word ‘Daddy’ been replaced with ‘Father’. Somehow the joy, exuberance, and abandon experienced by my boys would have been different, odd in a way.
Over the past few years I’ve been working to abandon some of the pharisaic tendencies and influences that have clouded a healthy and biblical view of who God is. So much of the legalistic baggage that I carried created an unhealthy fear of who my Heavenly Father is. Fear, insufficiency, and condemnation prevented a truly healthy relationship from forming. But now, now I can see and understand that dear prayer of my friend. I understand her view of the Lord as “Daddy”. When a believer lives in fear of the Lord, it stunts the growth of genuine heartfelt love. It prevents the abandonment and breaking of walls. It encourages a works based feeling of surety in our relationship with God. When we let go of the unbiblical, man-made rules of engagement, we can truly feel the deep and astounding love that our Heavenly Father has for us. While being all powerful and all knowing, He is also gentle, tenderhearted, and exemplifies the heart of a father – a dad – a daddy. As believers, we are His. We are loved. We are cared for. We are free from the fear of abandonment, separation, and hurt. And while I may not sprinkle my prayers with the word “Daddy,” my heart is more inclined to embrace and claim His fatherly, daddy-like attributes than ever before.
Ephesians 3:14-21
14 For this reason I kneel before the Father, 15 from whom every family[a] in heaven and on earth derives its name. 16 I pray that out of his glorious riches he may strengthen you with power through his Spirit in your inner being, 17 so that Christ may dwell in your hearts through faith. And I pray that you, being rooted and established in love, 18 may have power, together with all the Lord’s holy people, to grasp how wide and long and high and deep is the love of Christ, 19 and to know this love that surpasses knowledge—that you may be filled to the measure of all the fullness of God.
20 Now to him who is able to do immeasurably more than all we ask or imagine, according to his power that is at work within us, 21 to him be glory in the church and in Christ Jesus throughout all generations, for ever and ever! Amen.
