[Warning: sappy Christian content]
Story for you can use in ministering to fatherless kids:
I did not have an earthly dad I could go to or even relate to as a kid (or now as a man even.) Soon after I was in 6th grade I got sweet on a little girl and had no daddy to go to with my feelings, emotions or to ask how to handle the situation. I had heard a man preach on Romans 8:15 "Abba father" He had described "abba father" and the INTIMATE CLOSE emotion it speaks of in God's fatherhood to us, and said a good english interpretation that shed's it in the right light that it is essentially "Daddy God." That speaks the emotion of the verse.
Ro. 8:15 For you did not receive the spirit of bondage again to fear, but you received the Spirit of adoption by whom we cry out, "Abba, Father."
So I got on my little knees in the privacy of my bedroom and told God, claiming the verse that not only was he going to have to be my God, but He was going to have to do double duty and be my literal, earthly "Daddy" too. That he was going to have to "adopt me" as this verse spoke of in a true flesh & blood way, as if He too was a flesh & blood presence I could turn too. I had to have THAT kind of adoption too.
With all the faith a brand new 6th grader can muster I knew he had and proceeded to tell him all about the little girl, how I felt what I thought, my fears and just how I had no idea how to go about or think of my feelings- much less how to talk to the little girl. All real issues in a young persons life. I can look back and say God has more than held His end of that bargain that went down in my bedroom that evening. He has been my Daddy since that moment, and still is....
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So How does this work in the real world?
Very recently - A total GOD THING- A friend took me to her friends home, I did not know them nor had ever been there. A single mom lived there. She has been a Christian for 4 years. Her husband abandoned her, her two little girls and her teen daughter 2 years ago. She's a lonely Christian single mom, who is of course struggling with her situation and does not get much Christian fellowship.
I by God's grace went from total stranger in this home to minister in less than a half hour flat. The little girls were all over me obviously craving the love and interaction with a father figure. The little 6 year old even told me she wanted to play daddy & daughter. The teen daughter, though more reserved glowed as she watched her little sisters, 6 & 10 interact with a "godly" man. I hugged them and held them and loved on them and played and prayed with & for them.
I shared the above story of "Daddy God" with the children. And we prayed over the verse and they claimed God as their "Daddy" too since there's had ran off. We wrote the verse reference on the 2 little girls hands. (6 & 10 years old.) The 10 year old told me "Mommy has been telling me God has my whole heart, but I still felt my daddy missing in my heart. Now that part is full too." She looked at me with tears streaming down her little cheeks and wrapped her arms and legs around me. By the time I had to leave God's presence was so thick you could spread it with a pudding knife, and ALL present had been reduced to tears. Repeatedly. This was not me in the least- rather a merciful & loving God reaching out to His Children. To God be the glory. I was just a rusty dull tool he used.
Even you are not to old, to ask and receive a Daddy if you don't have one.....
So many kids are without a Dad. You can SO bless them with this verse & model of ministry I stumbled upon as a young boy....
