Sunday’s message was titled “The Best Father Ever.” Apparently it resonated with a lot of people. Several individuals have spoken with me and it’s obvious there are a lot of people with emotional scars from the past. One mother described how her kids had refused over the years to attend church on Father’s Day because of their pain. A middle aged man told me he desperately needed that message.

While I briefly talked about the fact that not all fathers are good fathers, most of the message focused on the fact that God is a great Father to His children. While all of us were reminded that God’s love is more than words, some were reminded that God’s love is what heals their hurt.

Many of us know people who were hurt as children by an adult. Some of them are now adults who struggle to love and trust other people. Some of them struggle to love and trust God.

Many of us struggle to grasp the impact a painful childhood can have on a person. Because we know people who “picked themselves up by the bootstrap” and appear to be doing well, we just assume everyone can do the same thing. What we don’t see is a person’s inside…we don’t see their heart and soul. We don’t know when the outside is a mask hiding pain.

I don’t think it will hurt anything if we all show a little more sensitivity and humility when dealing with people and their personal struggles. Maybe a little more praying and a few more acts of kindness could do some good. There might even be a person or two who would be blessed by listening to Sunday’s sermon if they knew about it. Perhaps you could tell them about it and point them toward our web site where they can hear it.

Does of any of this resonate with you?

Pastor Steve Hogg