Sitting in my living room next to my dad, I listened as he told me a story I had already heard many times before: the day I was born. I knew every bit of this story so well from all the retellings through the years. Still, as Dad continued to share its details, hearing him tell it made me appreciate his love and care for me.
I came into this world three months early and barely two pounds. My parents thought I would pass away shortly after I was born. Dad said, “Your grandma put her arm around me that day as we watched the helicopter take off with you inside, and she said these words, ‘Everything is going to be just fine. Mandy is going to make it.’” Dad paused in his storytelling with a tear in his eye before continuing, “When we got to the hospital to be with you, I personally thanked those men for keeping you alive.”
My dad’s words caused my eyes to well up with tears. I recalled the many times in my childhood when Dad would ask me, “Whose girl are you?” as he put his arm around me and smiled. I would always reply, “Daddy’s girl!” Dad and I always were always close; we had a special bond. Just as he could tell me anything, I also knew I could talk to him about everything.
After Dad went to Heaven, I experienced the many emotions that came with knowing my Dad was gone and the feeling of emptiness from his absence. This led me to think on my salvation and about my Heavenly Father Who will never leave me. This gave me such peace! Just like my dad had put his arms around me, my Heavenly Father continues even now to do the same for me. He guides, comforts, loves, protects, and keeps me.
The Bible says in Proverbs 23:26, My son, give me thine heart, and let thine eyes observe my ways. The Lord wants our hearts, and we are to observe His ways. To do this, we must pay attention when we read our Bibles and apply what we read there to our lives. It is easy to get into a rut of reading to “check a box” for that day and then to move on about our business. Are we really observing the Lord and His ways? If we do not use what God teaches us to fine tune our lives for Him, then are we really paying attention to what He wants us to do?
My hard-working dad was also a man who was faithful to God. I had and still have a responsibility as his child to pay attention to learn from how he lived. In Proverbs 10:1, the Bible says, The proverbs of Solomon. A wise son maketh a glad father: but a foolish son is the heaviness of his mother. We should all strive to be as the wise child in this verse; we should not want to live foolishly. It should be our desire to please our earthly father, but even more so our Heavenly Father. Proverbs 7:1-2 says, My son, keep my words, and lay up my commandments with thee. Keep my commandments, and live; and my law as the apple of thine eye.
Growing up, it may have taken me a bit longer than it did for my sister to understand that I must do right or deal the consequences of doing wrong. Often, we all must learn the hard way. The Christian life is no different. Our greatest desire should be to please our Lord and to do right. When we fall, we must get up and then do right. What a wonderful and comforting thought to know that we have a Heavenly Father Who will pick us up, hold us tight in His arms, and say, “Whose girl are you?”
by Mandy Harper
