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| Ed Standifer with sons Wayne (8 1/2) and Bobby (13) Lake Junaluska, NC 1952 |
How
would you describe your current relationship with God: (a) Casual
date? (b) Going steady? (c) Engaged? (d) Married? (ed) Divorced?
(Serendipity Bible 10th Anniversary Edition, page
1032).
I
view God as an authority figure with great love. Jesus called God
Daddy and that's the way I too most think of God. I call him Daddy
rather than Mamma because in our home daddy had the final say as to
what might be called up-in-the-air debatable matters. I quickly must
add that mother was a key, essential and indispensable part of all
such decisions; it's just that she in the end realized that some
issues which might come to a draw simply needed resolution after all,
and she loving gave this call to daddy. I really don't know the
final reason for this abeyance to father, I only know that it was a
solution that she graciously embraced. I might add that in my
marriage to Kathy the same pattern prevailed, and in the end truly
up-in-air decisions were seldom encountered and accommodations were
virtually always made before this point occurred. In my life the
church was key, and women played a high-profile authoritative role in
it. It never occurred to me to consider whether men or women were
more important or more equal—it was absolutely clear to me that I
was to show respect and consideration to all and if I did not, I
would disappoint my mother and certainly hear from my daddy.
My
current relationship with Daddy is a loving one. I know he has my
best interest at heart and his perspective is more reliable,
incisive, and right than my own. As with my daddy, I want to please
Daddy because I love and respect him. His love makes rebellion
despicable.
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