Pleading in Prayer

I love flowers.  They are happy and cheerful.  Most of the time.  This bunch is a bit wilted after being transplanted from my friend’s yard, but they will perk up.

I often have good intentions of putting things in “perfect order”.  I am a perfectionist after all.  However, I am a very, very, flawed perfectionist.  I do not always have the energy or desire to put in the amount of work required for “perfection”.  I used to chide myself for that.  I now have a different view.

I should seek Christ honoring standards in everything I do. “Whatever you do, do all to the glory of God.” (1 Corinthians 10:31) I think we can lose sight of the object of this verse.  If I start seeking man-made, man-honoring perfection, then I miss the God honoring life that I am supposed to seek.

I will not be perfect in this life.  No matter how hard I try.  I will attain perfection when God calls me home to heaven. He will then give me Christlike perfection.  In the meantime, I need to give my life over to God and He will correct my imperfections.

Now back to the flowers.  Some things do not require “perfection”.  It is acceptable that my flowers are not evenly spaced.  I need to spend my time and energy elsewhere.  I think God smiles on my imperfectly spaced flowers. He knows who I am (flawed and quirky), and loves me anyway.

I want to wish my dad a Happy Father’s Day.

I was born a “daddy’s girl”.  I have always adored my father (although when I was in trouble I may have faltered a bit – we won’t say how often that happened).

I heard a song when I was young called “I Want to Marry Daddy When I Grow Up”.  I believe if God has marriage for my life, then my husband will be a man similar to my dad.  A man of integrity, who seeks to put God first and share that with others.  My dad took me on my first date – when I was 8 years old.  He taught me how I should be treated.  Let’s just say I have very high standards.

I shared in a previous post how my dad taught me to love thunderstorms.  Another special memory is when I was 14.  The memory of the day I trusted Christ as my personal Savior was fading.  I had doubts about my salvation.  Youth leaders and Christian school teachers often taught that we should “make sure” we were saved.  I felt I needed to pray to ask Jesus to save me from my sins.  I knew I had to tell someone, so one night I told my dad.  Instead of having me “make sure” he started telling me why he thought I was truly a Christian.  I’m pretty sure I thought he was crazy (I’ve said this before).  I had it so ingrained in my head that I needed to “make sure” that I didn’t think there was any other option.  However, in godly wisdom, my dad listed evidence of salvation and shared Romans 10:9-10 with me.  I realized that this was true in my life (due to the ministry of the Holy Spirit).  I have at times struggled with doubt since that day, however, God used my dad to give me assurance based on Bible teaching.

So on Father’s Day this year, I want to publicly say, “Thank you , Dad.  I love you.  Happy Father’s Day.”