My wife and I were talking the other day about our dads. It was interesting that both of us stopped sports because of dads. I had heard the story about her dad when she was put into the last basketball game for a whopping few seconds several times before, but it was not until last night that I thought wow we have similar stories. Her dad stood up and made a comment to the effect of wow, what difference does it make now to put her in. My wife did not care about playing, she was having fun, but her dad wanted her to play and because of that one time, she stopped playing basketball. She went into Cheer-leading and if I remember correctly he rarely if ever came to the games to see her cheer.
I was in the 8th, 9th or 10th grade, I cannot remember and had gone back to baseball after about a 3 year layoff. Well during that time skills advance very rapidly. I had the defensive skills, but my offensive skills were terrible. I struck out every at bat, got hit by a pitch, or walked except for my last one. After an entire summer of not hitting the ball I made contact even it was hit to the shortstop and got thrown out at first. Along the way, I know my dad was cheering me on, but all I heard was criticism. I was frustrated with myself, not my father, but I took it out on him. Parents and teammates did not understand why I was playing until the saw me make a catch in right field and throw a guy out who was tagging up from second base at third. Then they understood, I was not playing because I was great offensively, but because I could make plays defensively. At the end of the season, I never went back to play baseball for any organized team.
I know both of our fathers loved and cared and as we talked, we both understood why they acted the way they did being parents ourselves. We want our kids to play, we want them to have fun, we want them to succeed, we want to cheer them on, we want them to learn, we want them to come to us when they need advice or help, and we want them to grow into responsible adults. In other words, we want a relationship with out children.
I am thankful that we have a heavenly Father who wants the same. He wants a relationship with us because he loves us. He wants us to seek Him, He is there to cheer us on, He wants us to succeed, He wants us to have abundant life, He wants us to do the right thing, He wants us to obey His commands, He is there to punish, He wants you to bring Him your problems and leave them with Him, He wants you to pray to Him and ask, He wants you to love Him as He loves you, and He wants us to be saved so we can spend eternity with Him.
For a lot of us, this is very challenging and very frightening. If you are having trouble seeking or even starting a relationship with God, then pray to Him. I know that might sound crazy, but take everything to Him and just leave it there.
For some reason, people think that God does not know their problems or what they have done or their needs. In other words, they think God does not love them. Why? My guess is they do not hear Him because they are working off of how they would respond or they are wanting the answer now. Stop and wait, God will answer, but remember the answer may come in a way that you might not think and it will come when God is ready to answer. For example, God may send something as small as a Butterfly to let you know He heard you, but if you are expecting something earth moving then you will miss it.