an orphan heart versus heart of a son

I had lunch with a friend the other day, and we were talking about our struggles as Children of God. She shared that because of her fractured relationship with her parents, one of her biggest challenges was accepting God was a loving Father, Someone who cared for her deeply, Someone she could rely on in times of trouble and need.

Unfortunately, this is a truth for many of the believers in the world - even more so as families are increasingly falling apart, and the family unit as pictured in the Bible (a happy, loving, godly family unit) is become harder to find.

At this point, I want to point you to my friend Lauren's blog, and a post she recently put up about the Heart of an Orphan versus the Heart of Sonship.

What I love about it is that it compares and contrasts what it's like being a Fatherless child, and a child with a Father. It's not a prescriptive list, but just something useful to think through. e.g., in the category of "Image of God", it has 'See God as Master' for an Orphan, and 'See God as a loving Father' as Son. In the category of 'Self-image', the Orphan has 'Self-rejection from comparing yourself to others' to the Son 'Positive and affirmed because you know you have such value to God.

I think I'm going to print it out and put it up somewhere :) That way, when I fall into the habit of thinking like an Orphan, I can say to myself, No, think like a Daughter!