Dancing With my Father God in Fields of Grace

"I know my Father, my Father knows me
I dance with my Father, my Father sings over me
...and nothing can ever take that away from me!!!"
lyrics from "I am a Friend of God"

Deliverance Week on the CFNI Campus
Speaker: Carrol Thompson

There have been so many good points in this lecture series that it is hard to know where to begin blogging my thoughts...so I will simply start with the point that hit closest to home for me.

Mr Thompson's main premise has been the devestation that is caused by fatherlessness in our generation. I know first hand from having been a social worker that the breakdown of the family is the number one tool of the enemy to harden children's hearts against God. And as a child of a divorced family, I know how that devestation can really rock a child's world.

I have no malice towards either of my parents for their divorce. I know that they are human with all the inherant weaknesses we all have as humans. I still have a great relationship with both my parents and they even have a good friendship with each other...which is wonderful for the grandkids!

As I have pondered the critical points of this message I was really touched by the simple truth that ORIGIN is everything. Origin determines identity. Origin determines purpose. No wonder there is such a humanistic outcry against the teachings of Creation in the school system. If the world system can get us confused about our ORIGIN they can trap a whole generation of people who lack identity or purpose; seeing themselves as nothing more than just a biological mishap between a sperm and an egg. Nothing could be further from the truth. We have great spiritual heritage in that we are created in the image of God and indwelt by the Holy Spirit. We have divine purpose and a blood-bought identity that is of incalculable value given to us straight from our Heavenly Father.

Given this same principle, and applying it to our families, it is easy to see how an absent father can really bring a crisis of identity and a crisis of purpose to a child. There are two things that form or mold a child, according to Mr Thompson:

1. A father's heart (gives identity)
2. A father's authority (forms character)

For boys, manhood is developed through sonship. Many men exchange true manhood for the counterfeit of sexual immorality to prove their manhood. Lust and sex, without covenant, does not make a man.

For girls, womanhood is learned and given value through the father relationship. A girl who loves and adores her father will also be able to trust her father. A girl can submit to a father she trusts. As a woman, this same love and trust can be transferred to her husband. If there has been an absent father , women will tend to find their identity in control and lack the ability to trust and submit to her husband...or to God.

Feminism is birthed out of fatherlessness. Feminism rejects marriage, rejects family and can pervert itself into homosexuality.

As I pondered all of these thoughts today, I was deeply aware of the grace of God in my life! I lived with my father for most of my formative years. There was a seed of value that was sown deep into my heart from my father. I remember how proud he was of me when I would cook him dinner, or iron his shirts...or even go bass fishing with him! I knew him as more than a father but also my friend. I looked forward to his coming home every day and having dinner ready. By wanting to please him, I learned what he valued as important and it helped shape the woman I am today. Family is the center of my world!

There was a time when I was 15 that I had been raped and assaulted by a "friend" from school. Suddenly my whole world went into a tailspin. In shame I hid the bruises. I was afraid to ask for help. It was a short time later that I was in a counselors office being seen for severe depression that I shared all that had happened. It took me almost 3 years before I shared with my father what had happened. I saw his compassion and his righteous indignation about the person who had hurt me and changed my life forever. He never once looked at me as a person who had lost value in his eyes...he simply saw his daughter and I knew he loved me.

Dad and mom both encouraged and helped me go to college. I built a new life away from dark memories. I made new friends...and I met Christ on a personal level!

When I arrived at college it was not long before I met the man I would marry. To this day I still tell him that he is just the kind of man that my father would have chosen for me! My husband and my father are two peas in a pod, cut from the same cloth....and I cherish that greatly!

I cannot imagine how differently my life would have been had my father never been an integral part of my life! How does a young girl survive with all the issues of self worth and identity that are intertwined with the violation of the body and not have a father there to assure them of their value? I am just thankful that I did have a father that was there when I was finally able able to share.

I know that it is the grace of God, despite the divorce of my parents, that gave my father the DESIRE and the "want to" to be a father to his children! That has made an eternal difference in my life, especially when he could have done as many fathers do--he could have just walked away and never looked back...but he chose to stay.

And for that, I am grateful!!

Dawn