Good Morning!

I’ve been pondering this uncontidional love business. Last week I shared that my daughter feels as she is unable to live up to my expectations. I’m glad she told me.

This is no easy topic to address. I’ve been trying to find reference material but have not been able to find much. My answer is in the pages of my bible. I don’t know exactly how all this will play out, in the end. This is a human problem and nothing unique between the two of us.

Initially, I suspected the problem lies in this verse:

Matthew 5:48 You therefore must be perfect, as your heavenly father is perfect.

As I said last week, the problem isn’t with us doing the impossible or that God should lower his standards. To think otherwise shifts the blame to God. It smacks of the overall suspicion we have towards God – which comes from you-know-who.

Genesis 3:1, 6-7a Now the serpent was more crafty than any other beast of the field that the Lord God had made. He said to the woman, “Did God actually say…”….. she took of its fruit and ate, and she also gave some to her husband who was with her, and he ate. Then the eyes of both were opened, and they knew that they were naked.

So the blame game began.

v. 12 The man said, “The woman whom you gave to be with me, she gave me fruit of the tree, and I ate.”

It continues to this day.

Romans 1:20b-22 So they are without excuse. For although they knew God, they did not honor him as God or give thanks to him, but they became futile in their thinking, and their foolish hearts were darkened. Claiming to be wise; they became fools,

Am I blaming my daughter? No. I’m in her shoes in my own relationship with my own dad. More so, we see the same problem with ourselves and God. There is one huge difference. Our Father, God, is perfect. Our human fathers are not. And neither are we.

If we look at things from the right perspective, we would look past the fault of our biological father and look only to our heavenly Father, who is perfect. In him we have all that we need. He loves us beyond comprehension. So does his Son.

John 15:12-14 “This is my commandment, that you love one another as I have loved you. Greater love has no one than this, that someone lays down his life for his friends. You are my friends if you do what I command you.

To see this greatest love, I need to be his friend and look at what Jesus commanded me – and do it.  Only then will I be able to demonstrate true love to my daughter.

Father, teach me so that I may teach her. Amen.

Copyright © 2018 Scott Powers