My Social Media-less Life

Yesterday, I could barely figure out what I wanted to blog about. Today, I’ve had two ideas for blogs. I’ll probably do the other one as a scheduled post so be on the lookout for another blog probably tomorrow. 😉

Since I had yesterday off, I did my “Monday” client today, which meant “Lunch with Kevin.”

Kevin is like a father to me and I really love hanging out with him because he’s so much like my own father was. I can’t remember why the story was brought to my mind as we were making our sandwiches, but something he said reminded me of one of the very few times where I specifically remember word for word what my dad said to me.

My dad didn’t talk a lot, but I also didn’t go out of my way to memorize everything he said because I didn’t think he would be gone before I was anywhere close to 30.

Now for the story…

It was about 2010 and I had a boyfriend. This boyfriend was not a Christian and I probably shouldn’t have been dating him, but I was 20 and when we met he was hurting in more ways than one.

So he told me that he wanted to sleep with me and since I had/have principles, I told him I would have to think about it since I was a virgin and wasn’t really just going to give my virginity away without some serious thought. I have since learned that I am a verbal processor and my processing partner at that time was my mom.
I told my mom what my boyfriend wanted from me and that I kind of wanted to do it. I really liked this guy and could see myself with him for longer than that summer. Since I already had a pretty solid foundation laid, my mom never tried to talk me out of it… but of course I was an adult and there wasn’t a whole lot a parent can do with their adult child other than say, “Please reconsider.”

At some point, my parents talked and my dad pulled me aside literally on the day I would have done the thing, looked me in the eye and said, “I can’t tell you what to do, but I will tell you that if you do this… I will lose all respect for you.”

My boyfriend never called me that day and by the time he did a few days later, I had decided giving my virginity away was not worth losing my dad’s respect.
Two big losses on the same day would have been… probably pretty detrimental since at that time I still very much considered myself a minor in many respects.

Some people might read that and think my dad was manipulating me or told me something just because he knew it was what I needed to hear. Others who really knew my dad, would know that he only said what needed to be said, when it needed to be said. And that was something that needed to be said at that exact moment in time. Plus, he meant every word. He really would have lost all respect for me, I really believe that.

Like Kevin said today, “You would have been able to gain it back, but it would have been very slowly.” And he’s right. My dad never held onto a grudge, but I did see him lose respect for people. If the “offender” managed to gain it back, all the better for all involved.

Because of all of that, I was thinking about my Heavenly Father.

He wants a relationship with His people (really with all people) so much that He was willing to come down as a Man and sacrifice Himself just so we could have some kind of relationship with Him.

And most days we do far worse to Him than we ever do to each other.

But you know what? My Heavenly Father called me by a new name.
Chosen.
I am set apart. Called to something greater.
I am redeemed. Even though I’ve done some things in the past I’m not proud of, I can always come back to Him and rest in the knowledge that I am His child and nothing can take that away. His love makes me want to be better. He may always accept me, but I don’t want to disappoint Him, just like I didn’t want to disappoint my earthly father.

Today, just learn to rest in knowing that He holds you in His arms and He loves you and He only wants what’s best for you. That will change your whole perspective on life.