God – A Loving Father or Just a Heavy Handed “Party-Pooper”
Similar to the attitude of (know it all but haven’t done anything) adolescents toward their (know nothing) parents, many, if not most adults would describe The God of the Bible as a stern, heavy-handed party-pooping deity. It is as though they never grew out of their adolescent rebellion but merely transferred their rebellious and stinky attitude toward their Creator.
At this point I must stop and acknowledge that our society, and families in general have changed. Many if not the majority of children in the last 40 years have been raised in fractured families where in the pursuit of all the toys, both parents worked resulting in less supervision and instruction for the children and a decrease in overall family stability. Many have grown up in broken homes with absent fathers. As a consequence, many of “societies children” never learned many of life’s lessons and they have developed a warped view of parents in general and specifically, a warped view of God. I was fortunate to grow up in a traditional family wrapped securely in the love of my parents; we didn’t have all the toys but we had what we needed and more. If you didn’t have this sort of upbringing or, if you have an awful attitude of your Heavenly Father because of failings or abuse modeled by your earthly father, I am very sorry that this has happened to you. I want to assure you that your Heavenly Father loves, cares and is concerned for you deeply as a loving Father should be.
As children grow up and experience the full force of life themselves, sometimes, an attitude metamorphosis occurs which results in them being able to see some of the wisdom of their parents and understand many of the reasons behind the perceived heavy-handed way that they were raised. A realization that life in general is a lot more complicated than it seemed to be when they were kids. Sometimes, because of this shift in thinking old resentment toward their parents turns into new appreciation.
So, is God really a “party-pooper” with a exhaustive list of do’s and dont’s? It may seem so but like any parent that truly loves their children, He wants His children to avoid the pitfalls of life. In many of life’s pleasurable activities, there are built in slaps that are oftentimes tragic. Alcohol? While an life-numbing medication for many, let’s be real about how many people’s lives are devastated through alcohol, addiction, DWI injuries and fatalities and alcohol fueled family strife not to mention the long term health effects. Drugs? Slap, many large cities are littered with addicted humans living in squalor. Wouldn’t any loving parent’s heart be broken that their son or daughter ended up like that? Sex outside of marriage? Slap, family breakups, torn relationships, disease and the murder of the unborn. God knows that we are prone to having these things spiral out of control in our lives and it is His desire not only for us to love Him back and accept His way of eternal salvation, He wants us to live the best sort of life we can live now. Jesus said that He came to give us (eternal) life and a more abundant life now.
While our impressions and experiences with our earthly fathers often leaves much to be desired, God, Our Heavenly Father, is the ultimate good Father with only the best of intentions for us. Please consider turning your heart toward Him and like the father in the parable of the prodigal son, [Luke 15:11–32], your Heavenly Father will come running to you no matter how far away you have strayed.