A Father learning about The Father

I mentioned in my introductory entry, that I am "sort of" a Christian. The truth is that I am a Christian, and like all Christians, I am also a human, so there are many things I have done, and do now, that are not what would be considered "Christ-like". I try to grow and learn and work toward being better with my thoughts and actions. I believe God is helping me along.

A couple of months ago, I was sitting in "cell group" which is a weekday class at our church. It is a chance for small groups to get together to learn and discuss various aspects of what it means to be a Christian. This particular evening we were discussing the Trinity (God the Father, God the Son, and the Holy Spirit). Being a relativly new daddy, I started to draw a correlation between my feelings about Lily, and what God the Father's feelings must be about his children. Lily, being new to this world, is learning new things everyday. Everytime she does something new, whether it be learning to clap, to crawl, or to say DaDaDaDa, I get an overwhelming feeling of joy. I don't care if she is advanced, delayed, or just average compared with other children, I am just so excited she discovered something new. As she gets older, she is also getting more curious.

Our living room is the home base of our lives. We have toys, TV, it is vacuumed daily, and it is a place where Lily can crawl around and play. Sometimes she tries to do something in which I KNOW she will fall, but I go ahead and let her do it. She has a little fall, she cries, and she learns not to do that again.

She sometimes gets bored with the living room, and wants to venture to new places ...like the kitchen. Now I don't know how many of you have been in our house, but the kitchen is not a safe place for an adult, let alone a 10 month old. I could name 15 things that could kill her before she even reaches the cabinet containg the "Mr. Yuck" items. Therefore, we have put up a road block of two storage cubes between the living room and the kitchen. These are roadblocks that she has figured out how to get around. I say no, she looks at me and smiles, and continues to push through, which results in me grabbing her, saying NO again, this time in a stern tone,and putting her back in the living room. She then cries a little. She doesn't understand WHY she can't go in there, but I am her Father, and I know that if she goes to the Kitchen, she will most definitely get hurt. Someday she will understand this, but for now, she has to trust me.

Now this may be a simplified illustration, but I belive God feels joy when a person learns something new about being Christian, whether they are 5 or 50. I believe God wants us to have fun. I believe God sometimes let's us fall so we can learn what NOT to do. And I believe that God puts up road blocks to really dangerous things, and if we plow through them, he will be stern with us. We have to trust that God knows what is best for us. And as we grow and learn, we will better understand what is a good way to live, where we can stay in the safety of the living room, which is a pretty fun place to be!