{"id":15781,"date":"2022-03-27T05:22:16","date_gmt":"2022-03-27T10:22:16","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/mypeacezone.com\/?p=15781"},"modified":"2022-03-27T05:22:24","modified_gmt":"2022-03-27T10:22:24","slug":"teddy-bears-ponytails-and-barbies","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/mypeacezone.com\/?p=15781","title":{"rendered":"Teddy Bears, Ponytails and Barbies"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Some of our Canadian family are here with us for several days. I am delighted. They needed a break from the dire cold and snow. Our Austin temps complied \u2013 upper 80s and 90s while they are here. Just seeing Gord, Sher\u2019s husband, and the dad of four girls and his patience, tolerance, devotion, and love for these women inspired this post today. I asked what these girls thought about their dad. Tynessa said her dad is a teddy bear. Karlei said her dad is the perfect \u201cgirl\u201d daddy. When young, he put their hair in ponytails and played with their Barbies with them. Gord is the epitome of our Heavenly Father\u2019s love for us \u2013 not just in the grandiose needs but the little, noticeable things like ponytails and teddy bears.

I know that love based on the relationship I have with my Heavenly Father. I remember feeling especially wimpy one day. I don\u2019t remember why, but I do know that I was longing for a father\u2019s love (my dad passed away when I was 15). I longed to feel his embrace, and hear him say, \u201cEverything\u2019s gonna\u2019 be alright\u201d.
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The tears began to flow as I envisioned me crawling up into God\u2019s lap and He WAS speaking those comforting and loving words to me. Then I realized God is more than a Father figure Who is stoic, stern and untouchable. I realized God is as close as I welcome Him to be in my life. I realized a father\u2019s intimacy with His little girl. He was WHO I needed Him to be at just that moment.

Galatians 4:6, says \u201cAnd because you are sons (and daughters), God has sent the Spirit of His Son into our hearts, crying, \u201cAbba! Father!\u201d So, you are no longer a slave, but a son (and daughter), and if a son (and daughter), then an heir through God.\u201d Jesus came to earth and hammered home the Father\/Child relationship to us. In His prayer to His Father, Jesus said, \u201cAnd I have declared to them Your Name, and will declare it, that the love with which You loved Me may be in them, and I in them.\u201d (John 17:26)

What name was Jesus referring to? It was the name \u201cFather\u201d. If there was anything close to Jesus\u2019 heart, it was to introduce God as \u201cFather\u201d to us. He even showed us how to pray “Our Father, Who art in heaven……” Jesus wants us to always have this image of God in our minds — that He is our Abba, Father. Why? Because He wants us to know that there is nothing more important or too insignificant for the Father when it comes to His children.

Back to that image of a daddy with his little girl. What if she had a splinter embedded into her thumb and never told her daddy about it? She just kept enduring the pain. Her daddy found out about it and asked: \u201cWhy didn\u2019t you tell me about it?\u201d And she replied: \u201cI thought you were too busy.\u201d Or \u201cI didn\u2019t want to bother you.\u201d

If you were that father, wouldn\u2019t it break your heart to hear your child say that to you? A splinter may be a small thing, but there is nothing too small when it concerns our children. If it affects them, it affects us, too. And here\u2019s the good news. No matter how old we are, we are still God\u2019s children. We should never think that our problems are too small for Him. If it is important to us, it is important to our Father, too.

I pray that today, wherever you are, and whatever you\u2019re facing that you slow down long enough to go to Abba, Father. Let Him be the teddy bear and ponytail maker of whatever you need today. Allow Him to hold you, embrace you and reassure you \u201cEverything\u2019s gonna\u2019 be alright! I am with you, and I will always be here to remind you \u2018You are mine! Trust Me. I\u2019ve got this!\u201d Go ahead. Crawl up on His lap and let Him be your loving Father today!<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Some of our Canadian family are here with us for several days. I am delighted. They needed a break from the dire cold and snow. Our Austin temps complied \u2013 upper 80s and 90s while they are here. Just seeing Gord, Sher\u2019s husband, and the dad of four girls and his patience, tolerance, devotion, and…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":15784,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_coblocks_attr":"","_coblocks_dimensions":"","_coblocks_responsive_height":"","_coblocks_accordion_ie_support":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[23225,23223,23224,1],"tags":[23220,6199,23218,1210,1769,23221,6203,1202,40,23222,23217,575,16518],"class_list":["post-15781","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-abba-father","category-fathers-love","category-heavenly-fater","category-uncategorized","tag-abba","tag-abba-father","tag-barbie","tag-blog","tag-christian","tag-father-child-relationship","tag-galatians-46","tag-heavenly-father","tag-inspiration","tag-our-father-who-art","tag-ponytail","tag-relationship","tag-teddy-bear"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/mypeacezone.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/15781","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/mypeacezone.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/mypeacezone.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mypeacezone.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mypeacezone.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=15781"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/mypeacezone.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/15781\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":15785,"href":"https:\/\/mypeacezone.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/15781\/revisions\/15785"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mypeacezone.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/15784"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/mypeacezone.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=15781"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mypeacezone.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=15781"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mypeacezone.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=15781"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}