Previous Challenge Entry (Level 1 – Beginner)
Topic: Father (as in paternal parent, not God) (04/10/08)
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TITLE: Daddy's Words | Previous Challenge Entry
By Heather Weaver
04/16/08 -
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“Heather, you’ve got to kick him out! He’s spending every dime you make! Little Maddie is going to grow up with nothing at all because of him.” Mother shouted these words as if all of our lives depended on my impending actions.
“I know, Mama,” I said with tears running down my face. “Mama, I know,” is all that I mumbled. But on the inside I was screaming, “I just can’t take being married to him and living in that! Then, I come out here and all I get is a sermon!”
Daddy was never a man of many words, especially since his health had declined even more with the terminal illness of emphysema. All of his life he was quiet. But when he did speak, everyone listened. Finally, that night, he interrupted Mama and said in his deep, stern voice, “Heather, why are you crying? We love you! Heather, go out there and tell him to leave! He won’t come back and bother you, and he won’t get Maddie! I’ll make sure of that! I had rather die in a jail cell knowing you and the baby are safe than to die here not knowing that. I don’t have long to live anyway!”
Daddy was right; he died about two years after he said those words. He did live long enough to see me divorce my ex-husband. It has been about nine years since the night Daddy said those words. Still, I can hear them just as clearly as if he had just said them yesterday.
I don’t want anyone to misunderstand; I’m not promoting violence. God wants us to use the institutions He put in place to handle such cases like this--an abusive marriage. But like most God-loving fathers, Daddy was a guardian of his children. I didn’t even realize it until after he passed away. During my marriage, he never talked about me or discussed the decline of my life as did everyone else in my life. By using his wisdom and his discernment, he never had to fight, but he was willing to for his children. But believe me, he meant every word that night.
I traveled a long, hard road from the divorce to make my peace with God. The demons of bitterness and hatred oppressed me for almost six years before I truly came back to my Lord. Many times, over all of the years since Daddy said that, I’ve questioned God, “Why? Why did you allow him to say that, Lord?” I could deal with Daddy’s death so much easier if I couldn’t still hear him say those words. For years, I’ve asked that question and never received an answer until the other day.
It was about a month ago, I was praising God in my heart and listening to Christian music while I was getting ready for church. One of my favorite Bible verses entered my mind out of no where.
“Greater love hath no man than this, that a man lay down his life for his friends.” John 15:13 KJV
As this verse came to mind verbatim, revelation began coursing through my heart. Like many of God’s mechanisms, Daddy’s words served more than one purpose. However, this is the most essential:
God used Daddy’s words to make me realize the love of our Savior, Jesus Christ. All of us believe in Jesus, His life, death, and Resurrection, but do we really grasp it? When you hear someone actually say the equivalent of “I will die for you,” it really puts Jesus’ work on the cross into perspective.
Jesus, in His divinity, looked ahead in time and saw each person in their sin. Jesus, seeing us in our sin, said, “Why are you crying? I love you! Child, go out there and tell him [Satan] to leave! He won’t come back and bother you, and he won’t get you! I’ll make sure of that! I had rather die humiliated on a cross knowing you are safe than to live here not knowing that. But this death won’t stop me. I’ll come back for you!”
I am fully convinced that God used my daddy’s words that night almost nine years ago to give me a better understanding of His sacrifice made on my behalf.
It’s kind of ironic. Daddy was a God-fearing child of God, but he said those words out of concern for his daughter, not out of concern for Jesus’ Kingdom. Daddy was just being a daddy.
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