The Father You've Always Wanted by Ed Tandy McGlasson

Author:Ed Tandy McGlasson
Language: eng
Format: epub
Published: 2018-08-16T16:00:00+00:00

Hearing the Wrong Father

My early years of trying to be a dad were hard. It wasn’t that I didn’t love my kids—it was that I came out of my childhood needing to prove myself because of the loss of my dad and the broken way my stepfather parented. As a dad, it was much easier for me to say, “I told you so” than to say, “Where does it hurt?” It was even harder to stay present and not push my kids away when they disappointed me.

In chapter 3, I related the time I screamed in anger at my son and tossed him onto his bed. When I walked away from that confrontation, I was shaking and totally disgusted with the way I handled myself. Convicted and ashamed, I cried out, “God, why did I do that? You know that I love my son with all my heart!”

Tears formed in my eyes as the presence of the Lord filled the room. Then the loving voice of the Father spoke to me and said, “You spoke that way because it’s the same way you speak to yourself when you’re wrong. Ed, you have learned to hear My voice through the broken voice your stepfather spoke to you when he was angry. But that’s not the way I speak. If you learn how to hear the Father’s voice over you—My loving voice—it will make you the kind of father who makes a difference.”

My world was rocked! For the first time in my life, I heard the voice of God the way Jesus heard it: full of approval, and love, and hope. When Jesus was on earth, He said, “I only do what I hear the Father saying to Me.” What do you think the tone of that conversation was? I had never heard the gentle, tender voice of my heavenly Father. That day His voice made me weep because His loving truth resonated deep within, penetrating to the very marrow of my soul.

Have you ever seen your life flash before your eyes? The Father showed me the way I was loving—and failing to love—those around me. My heart started breaking when I saw how I had made most of my marriage about me, the way I was driving my kids toward performance, and how hard I was trying to prove myself to everyone around me. I had learned to love that way because my whole identity came from trying to prove myself worthy.

That day my heart finally had a much-needed encounter with a Father who was already running toward me in love.

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