My Own Dragons

"Dwight Eisenhower said that from the begining, his mother and father operated on an assumption that set the course of his life - that the world could be fixed of its problems if every child understood the necessity of their existance.  Eisenhowers parents assumed, and taught their children, that if their children weren't alive, their family couldn't function,"
~Donald Miller To Own A Dragon~

My mother raised me on the notion that everyone, all of our Lords creation were not only loved by Him but that we all are important and valuable to Him as well.  In fact, not a day went by that she wouldn't tell me how important I was to our family.  To a kid growing up in a single parent home, this was a HUGE deal.  I wasn't lost.  Nor was I forgotten or of less importance to someone else.  I was her son, I was Scott.  However, somewhere along the way to manhood some of those assurances which she gave me seemed to get lost in the shuffle of growing up and marurity.  There's that time in every kids life just before he enters adulthood but barely into his teenage years.  I think it's here that I somehow lost myself in the business of life.  While most kids my age were frustrating those around them with teenage antics, I was being thrust into a world of adult responsibilities far too soon.  These were my dragons.  Don't get me wrong, I did my own share of hellraising in those years as I fought to find out just who I was.  There times when my mom would tell me how important I was to our family one minute, then wonder out loud in amazement the next if her youngest son was capable of what he had just done.  Such was the life of a reckless teenager finding his way in the world.  Despite all of my antics, she would always reassure me that I was indeed special.  As a result, I grew up knowing that I was loved and cared for.  I was also fortunate enough to have friends who had solid family structures, so I grew up seeing just what a sound family structure was like.  Of course, one of my other dragons was the fact that my own father was nowhere to be found.  At this point I was too young to grasp the idea of God the Father...of God as my true Daddy.  I won't lie and say that I never wondered what I did to piss my dad off so much that he would want nothing to do with his own son.  As I found out later, he had his own dragons he was fighting.  Through some set of circumstances which only God knows, I've been able to tame most of my dragons...he never did.

14For as many as are led by the Spirit of God, these are sons of God. 15For you did not receive the spirit of bondage again to fear, but you received the Spirit of adoption by whom we cry out, “Abba, Father.” 16The Spirit Himself bears witness with our spirit that we are children of God, 17and if children, then heirs—heirs of God and joint heirs with Christ, if indeed we suffer with Him, that we may also be glorified together.
Romans 8: 14 - 17 NKJV

The first time I ever heard someone refer to God as Daddy was from a friend in church as he prayed for me one Sunday morning.  "Daddy...love on your son Scott" he prayed.  I had more questions than answers as a result of this.  I was Gods son?  What about Jesus?  Was I indeed on the same level as the Son, the image of our invisible God? What sort of blasphemy was this?  I had been raised on the accepted christian story of Christ Jesus our savior.  The virgin birth, His ministry on the mount of Olives, His death on the cross which led to His being raised up into heaven three days later where He now looked down upon us with approval or disapproval depending on our behavior.  To me, this was Jesus, not the "Daddy" which my friend prayed over me that morning.  See, to call someone Daddy puts someone on a personal level with you.  I had one daddy, and he had failed me when I had needed him most.  Yet, something in my spirit told me that my one true Daddy was there waiting for me.  As the apostle Paul tells us in Galations 1, when it pleased God, He revealed His Son in him.  Apparently it did not please God to reveal Christ Jesus in me until later in life.  However, I'm not complaining at all.  For all of my dragons which I have fought and tamed over the years, knowing that I have one true Daddy who will never leave me nor forsake me isn't one of them.  I guess mom was right all along.

15But when it pleased God, who separated me from my mother’s womb and called me through His grace, 16to reveal His Son in me, that I might preach Him among the Gentiles, I did not immediately confer with flesh and blood, 17nor did I go up to Jerusalem to those who were apostles before me; but I went to Arabia, and returned again to Damascus.
Galations 1: 15 - 17 NKJV

~Scott~