Daughter of The King

(Pictures by: Bobby Halliday)

A huge part of growing up for children is to have their father's blessing, his approval, his affection, his guidance and love.
For several weeks over the summer Maddie, with Alyssa's help, met every Sunday with a group of girls at Bethel Worship Center led by Lori Johnson.
They did all kinds of "girl" stuff and talked about really important issues.
At the end of the summer we had a "blessing" ceremony.
The ceremony is to publicly allow the daddy figure in their lives to speak a blessing over her.
He speaks of all the things he loves about her, tells her why he loves her and that he will always be there and support her.
Each girls is presented with flowers, a crown, hugs and kisses.
For now, it was an awkward and embarrassing moment in time for Maddie.
She was very nervous and embarrassed.
But in the years to come, she look back on it having the confidence in knowing that she is always loved and affirmed by her father, setting the course for her life to be built on security and trust.
It was a powerful and symbolic ceremony and spoke of the way our heavenly Father feels about her and each of us.
Not everyone gets a Father's blessings from their earthly father.
Not all of us find it from our heavenly father.
Many of us don't have a good relationship with our father and so our perspective of God isn't based on the goodness of God.
It is said, that we run from the goodness of God.
Here is what I do know, when we finally grasp the goodness of God and can see him as a loving father, everything within us changes.
Everything!