{"id":9301,"date":"2013-02-14T00:01:40","date_gmt":"2013-02-14T05:01:40","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/girlfriendscoffeehour.com\/?p=9301"},"modified":"2013-02-13T12:11:21","modified_gmt":"2013-02-13T17:11:21","slug":"captivating-chapter-6-let-him-father-you-a-deeper-healing-pg-106-112","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/girlfriendscoffeehour.com\/wordpress\/2013\/02\/14\/captivating-chapter-6-let-him-father-you-a-deeper-healing-pg-106-112\/","title":{"rendered":"Captivating: Chapter 6 – Let Him Father You – A Deeper Healing (Pg. 106 – 112)"},"content":{"rendered":"

Daddies.\u00a0 I have come to find that this can be a tough topic for many women.\u00a0 Some have had wonderful doting fathers that made them feel like princesses.\u00a0 More often than not our dads have fallen short in some way, and sometimes not intentionally.\u00a0 Some work to provide and give their family as much as possible, but leave us emotionally void, never saying “I love you” or knowing we are cherished.\u00a0 Some say all the right things, but their actions do not show love or respect for their family.\u00a0 And unfortunately there are fathers that take advantage of their position in the family and violate their daughters in ways that no girl should have to experience.\u00a0 What is wonderful though is that no matter what your experience with your dad, you have a Heavenly Father that loves you and cares about you<\/strong><\/em> more than any human father can, no matter how amazing they are!<\/p>\n

I, like Stasi, have heard many times that we view God through the lenses we view our own fathers.\u00a0 I can definitely see the validity in that, and I have seen women who definitely do that, but I don’t know if that is necessarily true for everyone.\u00a0 For me, my dad was one of those dads that worked very hard to provide for\u00a0our family.\u00a0 I also knew that he was always in my corner.\u00a0 But he was not someone who made me feel cherished, or like his little princess.\u00a0 “I love you” was rarely verbalized in our house, and there was no “twirling around” in dresses or cuddling up in his lap that I can ever remember.\u00a0 Despite that, I put my daddy on a pedestal and thought he could do no wrong.<\/p>\n

To this day, I have very similar feelings.\u00a0 But my view of God was just the opposite.\u00a0 I thought of him as the “punishing God” just waiting for me to mess up.\u00a0 Someone to be afraid of, and who would never “be in my corner” or provide for me.\u00a0 So\u00a0I viewed my Heavenly\u00a0Father\u00a0much differently than how I viewed my earthly father.\u00a0 I think it was more about the faith I was raised in, rather than my dad.\u00a0 I don’t think I ever heard God referred to as a father, except in prayers I was given to memorize, and even then it just seemed like words and not an actual relationship.<\/p>\n

But praise Him that I know the truth now<\/strong><\/em>.\u00a0 I know who He is.\u00a0 He is my Daddy, my Papa, my ABBA\u00a0Father.\u00a0 I can snuggle up in His lap whenever I want, and He welcomes it.\u00a0 I can talk to Him about anything and everything and He listens like I am the only person in the world.\u00a0 I can ask Him, “Do you love me?\u00a0 Am I beautiful and captivating?” and His answer will always be yes<\/strong><\/em>.\u00a0 Isn’t that amazing?\u00a0 What a loving\u00a0God we serve.\u00a0Do you believe this for yourself?\u00a0 Are you still working to earn His love?\u00a0 Rest easy sisters, there is nothing you can do to make Him love you any more or any less than He does right this minute.<\/strong><\/em><\/span><\/p>\n

A line in this chapter really stood out to me, “What if you have a genuine and captivating beauty that is marred only by your striving”<\/em>.\u00a0 Wow.\u00a0 That stung a bit, and I definitely saw myself in that comment.\u00a0 I know God loves me, right now, where I’m at, human and stumbling.\u00a0 He does, and He loves you too.\u00a0 So why do I still try to earn His love in so many ways?\u00a0 I tend to try too hard in all relationships, tend to overthink every issue I face,\u00a0put too much energy into\u00a0pretending\u00a0that everything is fine,\u00a0try to do more and more for God through ministry or studies or any other number of things.\u00a0 I am striving.\u00a0 And I am holding myself back.\u00a0 I am learning that is isn’t about “doing for” God, it is about “being with” God.\u00a0 I take comfort in that.\u00a0 I need to sit in His lap more and listen.\u00a0 I need to embrace His love.\u00a0 I need my Daddy.\u00a0 How about you?<\/span><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

\"Captivating_Ch6_109\"<\/a><\/p>\n

\u00a0_________________________<\/p>\n

LET’S PRAY<\/strong><\/p>\n

Lord we come humbly to You today.\u00a0 Father, we\u00a0need Your love.\u00a0 Come to the core of\u00a0our hearts, come and bring Your love for us.\u00a0 Help\u00a0us to know You for who You really are, and perhaps not as\u00a0we see our earthly fathers.\u00a0 Reveal yourself to us.\u00a0 Reveal Your love for us.\u00a0\u00a0Show\u00a0us what we mean to You.\u00a0 Come and father us, we need You Daddy.\u00a0 In Your Heavenly Name we pray.\u00a0 Amen.<\/p>\n

YOUR ASSIGNMENT<\/strong><\/p>\n

Part of the reason women are so tired is because we are spending so much energy “striving”.\u00a0 So much energy devoted to suppressing\u00a0issues and keeping a good appearance.\u00a0 We want to give you permission to relax. Rest in the security of the Lord’s love. \u00a0Let it go sweet sister!\u00a0How does the thought of giving up all that struggling make you feel? \u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Daddies.\u00a0 I have come to find that this can be a tough topic for many women.\u00a0 Some have had wonderful doting fathers that made them feel like princesses.\u00a0 More often than not our dads have fallen short in some way, and sometimes not intentionally.\u00a0 Some work to provide and give their family as much as […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":16,"featured_media":9380,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[20],"tags":[144,147,181,218,425,436,554,571,686,723,9297,968,1009],"class_list":["post-9301","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-singles","tag-bible","tag-bible-study","tag-captivating","tag-christianity","tag-girlfriends-coffee-hour","tag-god","tag-jesus","tag-john-eldredge","tag-michelle-graziano","tag-online-bible-studies","tag-singles","tag-singles-bible-study","tag-stasi-eldredge","entry"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/girlfriendscoffeehour.com\/wordpress\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/02\/Captivating_Ch6_109.jpg","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p39pHp-2q1","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_likes_enabled":false,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/girlfriendscoffeehour.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9301","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/girlfriendscoffeehour.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/girlfriendscoffeehour.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/girlfriendscoffeehour.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/16"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/girlfriendscoffeehour.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=9301"}],"version-history":[{"count":17,"href":"https:\/\/girlfriendscoffeehour.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9301\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":9397,"href":"https:\/\/girlfriendscoffeehour.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9301\/revisions\/9397"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/girlfriendscoffeehour.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/9380"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/girlfriendscoffeehour.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=9301"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/girlfriendscoffeehour.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=9301"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/girlfriendscoffeehour.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=9301"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}