Daddy's Girl

Everybody looks like someone else . . . or elses . . . that is a fact of life. During the first year of her life, people constantly told us how much Bekah looked just like me. Of course for that first year, she was a bald chubby baby who smelled funny. Eventually she lost the baby fat and grew some hair. NOW everyone comments on just how much she looks like her mother. Don’t get me wrong, I would rather her look like her mother; I happen to believe her mother is absolutely beautiful.

The scarier part is that she does some of the things I do. Last night she sat on the bed with an open Bible and an imaginary computer in front of her, and pretended to type away – a lot faster than I do. When I asked her what she was doing, she said she was “writing her blog.” At least once a week she tells me what she is preaching on next Sunday (and yes, I have been tempted to steal a sermon or two from her). She wants to play her guitar like me, drive like me, and a host of other things – most of which I would rather her not emulate. She is a daddy’s girl.

As scary as it is to me that my daughter wants to be like me, I am reminded that my heavenly Father’s goal for my life is that I become like Him. That is the very reason He redeemed me . . . to be conformed to the image of Jesus (Romans 8:29). God’s plan for my life was to redeem me and work in my life piece by piece to make my life reflect His influence and show His work through me (2 Corinthians 3:18). He gets the glory in that.

I learn to imitate God the same way my daughter learns to imitate me. She watches everything I do. She wants to be with me and have my attention every moment I am around. She wants to play games with me, she wants me to tell her stories, teach her things, sing songs with her. She wants her life to be totally wrapped up in mine.

What a lesson for me! I will come closer to God’s goal for my life only when I allow my life to be absorbed in Him. When I gaze at God by reading about Him in His word and by experiencing His power in my life as I live by faith, I begin more and more to take on His likeness. The more I experience Him and the more I learn about Him – the more I am exposed to God , the more like Him I will become. And I will fulfill His purpose for my life.

My purpose is not to be the best pastor, the most loving husband, the best daddy – though I want to be all of those things, and more. My purpose, though, is to reflect the presence of God at work in my life. I was born again to look like my Father.

Who do you favor?