My baby girl just left for her senior prom…her last prom. She was so beautiful with her hair piled high and her long dress flowing and a smile on her face. I paid her a lame compliment and then choked up…there are no words for moments like that, I just love her. That’s it, nothing more; she’s my child and I love her.
Did you ever hope that maybe God feels the same way? That maybe it’s true that He keeps His word and forgets about our sin; and that we who love and obey Him are truly His children and He loves us and that maybe, just maybe, He sometimes gets choked up about that.
My daughter didn’t need to do everything right today, or even this week – she didn’t need to ask my opinion on her dress or her choice of restaurants. My daughter didn’t need to be ashamed or explain away that ‘D’ on the chemistry test or that she just couldn’t run her best at the track meet. I love her and I can let all that go because I love her heart and soul and spirit.
We sin…we make mistakes…we fail. We forget sometimes to ask God or to be accountable to Him; and sometimes we are asking when we don’t need to. The spirit is willing but the flesh is weak and He knows that, and He loves us heart, soul, and spirit.
In the course of our every day He loves us; and on those special moments I hope He is proud of His children.  He said of His only Begotten “You are My Beloved Son, in you I am well pleased.”  By the righteousness of Christ I hope we please Him too.
He admonishes us when we need it and He lets us fall if we get beyond boundaries or to smart for our britches. But when we remember what He taught us and we just do the right thing without asking we are the apple of His eye. When we step out into the world unafraid because of what we know about Him and because we trust Him I can see Him looking at the angels and saying “Did you see that? Did you see what my kid just did?”
Remember how God boasted of His “servant Job” to Satan? How God blessed Abraham and how He had a heart for David? Picture the Trinity in a three-way ‘high five’ and the Father saying “I love it when a plan comes together!” God gets excited and proud when His people are righteous.
We have all the power and resources of the God-head in our corner and when we shine He feels the Glory and that should warm our hearts. We don’t need a fancy hairdo or nice clothes to be loved by the Father.  But when we make an effort to look our best and be our best I know He notices, because we are His children and He loves us.
You doubt God loves us? You doubt that He can see past our sin to be proud of us? Remember the words of Jesus in Matthew Chapter 7. “If you then, being evil, know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will your Father who is in heaven give what is good to those who ask Him!” Fathers know how to express pleasure in an obedient child.
I know that when my two daughters are out in the world they make me look good. I am an honored and respected man where I am not known because of who my children are. Because they honor me by doing what’s right. This is what God calls His children to do. When we honor Him with our life and actions and choices the world knows that our God is…they know that He really is.

Dear God

Dear God, was that necessary? Isn’t it enough you pick on me…a life of poverty? That’s all right, but what have you got against my horse? Really, sometimes I think when things are too quiet up there you say to yourself, “Let’s see, what kind of mischief can I play on my friend Tevye?”
It’s hard to get too concerned with the frivolous talk when you see and understand the close relationship Tevye has with his God. As he walks into the courtyard of his home, leading his horse and talking to God his wife Golde starts nagging and Tevye looks skyward and says, “I’ll talk to you later.”