The Father Delights In You

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By Elizabeth Dittmer

“The Father delights in you!”

Those are the words one of my dear friends leaves me with every time we part. For the longest time, I struggled to accept this. Coming from a family with a father who loves “subtly”, I grew up thinking I was unworthy of love. As I grew, I yearned for this paternal love, and tried to fill myself with “love” coming from all the wrong places. 

But as we know, God is love. Love exists through Him, with Him, and in Him, because He is love Himself. The world offers us physical things, whispering lies into our heads about what we need to do in order to be loved, but here’s the thing – God created us as human beings, not human doings. God the Father loves you because you simply are. God the Father believes you are beautiful because you are. God the Father says you are worthy because you are. 

Our sinfulness and brokenness do not define us. Every single one of us will fall, but God will always be there to catch us. And when we turn away from Him through sin, He will be there waiting for us to return home to Him every time in a warm, loving embrace. 

Maybe you have an earthly father who is striving to reflect God the Father, or maybe yours is physically or spiritually absent. Whatever your situation, rest assured that you are beloved in the eyes of your Heavenly Father. Your earthly father, he is sinful and broken just like the rest of us. Pray for him. Pray that he may be open to receiving God’s love, and pray that he may grow to properly reflect the love of God into your relationship with him. 

Sister, I am truly sorry if you did not receive love from your earthly father. I understand that you might feel beaten down, jealous, or just plain angry. But who are you feeling these emotions towards? God the Father who created you and all things beautiful? Your earthly father who is broken and sinful, just as you and I? Neither are deserving of anything less than your love. The devil desires for us to be isolated from each other, broken apart, where anger and negativity can so easily brew. But, my sister, you were not created for this; you are the beloved daughter of the Creator of all things good! God wishes for you to be happy even more than you wish it for yourself, so why are you believing these lies from the devil? Why are you letting anyone other than God Himself decide who you are? 

Your worth is in God the Father. Until the moment you can release everything else you’ve put your worth in, be it school, sports, work, anything or anyone else other than God your Creator, you will not be able to fully receive His love, and you will not be able to properly reflect God’s love into the world. 

It was on a retreat that someone read to me Jeremiah 29:13. It says, “When you look for Me, you shall find Me”. God the Father has been there with you the whole time. He has chosen you, He has loved you into existence, and He has never once forgot about you. Our Father is waiting for each and every one of us to look up, gaze into His ever-loving eyes, and take a literal leap of faith into His eternal embrace. 

The Father delights in you. And don’t you forget it. 

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Handing Over Regrets

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Bleeding All Over: Accepting Brokenness and Healing Within