Unchanging Opinion
written by Pastor Glenn Dawes
http://tddm.org/Devotional/unchanging-opinion
A couple of weeks ago I celebrated another birthday and received many well wishes and some much appreciated gifts. My son Matt gave me an awesome Dad card. What really touched me was when my daughter Beck handed me her card. “Dad”, she said, I’m not exactly your “little girl” any more but, happy birthday.” The front of her card read “A Dad’s love can make a big difference in a little girl’s world.”
The emotions and memories really took hold of me. In a flash, I remembered those tense moments in the operating room when she was born. Her first breath and when they told me I got my baby girl – the first girl on my side of the family in over 70 years. I thought of her first day of school when she tearfully clung to me, the concerts, award ceremonies, and assemblies, competitions where we cheered for her, the difficult teen years with the whacky hormones, multiple heartbreaks, piercings and tats, and yes the high school graduation. I remembered the university struggles, phone calls and graduation.
My fondest memory had to be when Beck was about three. My bouncy little blue eyed blond jumped into my lap and asked me “Daddy, how much do you love me?” To which I responded “well baby, if you ever needed a new heart, I’d give you mine.” “Ok” she grinned and scooted away. A while later, she came back with a sad look on her face. “Daddy, you need your heart to live, so if you gave me your heart you would be dead and I don’t want you to be dead.” “Well baby, you asked me how much I love you, and that’s how much. I’d give my life for you in a heartbeat.”
In all these years my opinion and love for Becky hasn’t changed. Today, she is a gorgeous twenty three year old registered nurse with her own home, a love for God and a passion for people.
Sadly, we live in a world where all too much importance is put on opinions. Love is conditional. We see it in relationships and even in marriages. I’ll love you if … I’ll be with you if … sound familiar?
People’s opinions of each other and even themselves change like the wind. When we fail expectations we take a beat down and feel like a complete failure. We feel like a loser and fall into depression. We try to perform, we try to measure up and be someone we’re not.
Here’s the news flash. GOD’S OPINION OF YOU NEVER CHANGES!
God knew you before you were even born. He knew that you would mess up and make wrong decisions. He knew that you would make choices in your life that would land you in places of brokenness that He never intended for you to be. But in spite of it all, in eternity past, He chose to love you. Yes, love you completely and unconditionally. So much that He came up with a plan of salvation for you in and through His Son Jesus.
His heart aches for you like a Dad’s heart aches for his child and that Dad’s love can make a big difference in your world if you let Him.
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2014 Devotionals
EspiritualThese are the devotionals that were written and posted on TDDM.org in 2014. Because the site underwent a major update in the interface as well as the skin, the devotional section took a lot of slack in attention while the staff focused on working ou...
