Point Your Children To Father God
"Have you asked God about it?" My dad's kind and gentle eyes looked right into my heart.
He could have shouted, "NO WAY!" He could have declared, "No daughter of mine will have a pierced eyebrow!" He could have pleaded, "Please don't."
I was prepared for all of those scenarios. Instead, my Father had lovingly directed me to our Father, Yahweh.
Hands down, without question, this is the greatest gift I've ever been given. Over and over, throughout my life, my Father has shown me how to have a relationship with God.
It's quite incredible. My parents didn't raise me to be like them. They didn't teach me to do what they do. They didn't groom me to walk in their footsteps. Instead, they mentored me to be God's daughter more than to be their daughter. [Oh friends. Need some parenting encouragement? Yesterday our Pastor shared an awesome message about 12-year-old Jesus in the Temple.]
Well, I didn't get my eyebrow pierced. But not because of a moral or cultural reason. And not because my parents didn't let me. Not because of any other reason but this: I asked Yahweh about my eyebrow and He talked to me about my life. And then my eyebrow didn't matter anymore.
I had been feeling obscure. I had been feeling unknown. I wanted my outside appearance to give an indication of my inside worth. I wanted to give people a reason to want to know me. I wanted to wear something that invited... invoked... evoked... enticed. And, as a 20-year-old in 1995, I thought an eyebrow ring would do that.
That day became a foundationally transforming moment in my life. It wasn't about my eyebrow. It wasn't about piercing. It wasn't about making the "right" decision. It was about my relationship with God. It was about dialogue with my Source. It was about walking life hand in hand with Him.
Here's the thing: I could have pierced my eyebrow. It was just an eyebrow. No big deal. And God didn't tell me not to. But the conversation with my Father God took me down a different path. Away from me crafting my own identity. And towards a deeper walk with Him. He showed me that my plans and choices are nothing if they are done apart from Him. What I thought I needed was not at all what I needed. And what I needed was life with Him.
Over the years I have had many no-big-deal decisions to make. I have also had many really-big-deal decisions. And even a few life-and-death decisions. I'm so grateful my earthly Father pointed me to my heavenly Father when it was about a no-big-deal issue. Now in the really-big-deal issues I know how to talk with God honestly about my heart and how to hear Him as He speaks freedom and life to my heart.
To my earth Dad,
Thank you for living your life hand-in-hand with God. Thank you for walking honestly and transparently. Thank you for modeling how to know Him and be known by Him. Thank you for putting aside your own thoughts and principles about eyebrows and everything else... and leading me to know the Father of us all. Pray for me to have the strength, courage and humility to do the same for your grandkids. Happy (American) Father's Day. I love you.
If you need wisdom -- if you want to know what God wants you to do -- ask Him, and He will gladly tell you. (James 1:5a NLT)