Ann remembers feeling uncomfortable one...
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Ann remembers feeling uncomfortable one Sunday when the pastor preached on the importance of loving one another. The pastor said something to the effect of, “Your ability to trust God will depend on your childhood relationship with your father.” Ann’s heart sank when she heard those words. She affirmed in her head that the pastor was correct, but her heart was another subject. She recalled those painful times growing up when her father would burst into a fit of rage. She saw firsthand how her father’s behavior was destructive to their family. Ann feared her father. Since she did not trust her dad, how could she trust her heavenly Father? Ann admits wrestling with this for many years. Then her mother became terminally ill, given only a couple of months to live. It was during this time that Ann saw a different side of her father. She watched as he gently cared for her mother. She wondered how this could be the same man who she feared. In conversation, her father admitted his failures as a father. “I saw how God loved me,” Ann states, “but so much more than my own dad.” God was at work in Ann’s life, healing her childhood wounds. The apostle Paul was in prison when he penned these words, “to lead a life worthy of the calling to which you have been called, with all humility and gentleness, with patience, bearing with one another in love.” We live our lives in humility and gentleness pointing others to Jesus. It is not always easy but we show the love of Christ to everyone we meet.
