by Kim Saylors

Created on: December 24, 2008

I have had a lot of people ask me about the personality of God. Most people imagine God as a harsh judge or as an entity too far out of reach. In some cases many people feel they are not good enough for God. This saddens me and sometimes brings tears to my eyes. God is so much different than all that. However, most people know only what has been taught to them from the pulpit of some church. I do have to say that not all churches teach the same thing, however I will also say that religion has cut God up into little pieces and have put Him in a box.

The God that I happen to know quite well is the one from the same Bible that a lot of churches seem to twist. Maybe it is because of the way I grew up. It could be some of the things I have been through in life that have influenced my beliefs of what God is. All I know for sure is God is not at all what had been taught to me from any church. I came to know God when I became a parent.

God is a loving parent. I cannot speak for anyone else, but there is nothing any of my six children can do that would cause me to stop loving them. Nothing they can do that would cause me to not want to be around them. Anything they could possibly do would not make me be unforgiving. I may not like some of the actions they take and it is ok to dislike an action, but it will not make me dislike them as a person. Thinking of God in this concept has allowed me to forgive many people of their actions toward me, toward my children or my friends, etc.

As my children grow up and commit any sort of misdeed, I am swift to set them on the right path. This is how I believe God is. When my grown children were teenagers, I allowed them to make some decisions for themselves and I also allowed them to pay the consequences for those decisions. Some of their decisions were good and had good consequences. Some of their decisions were bad and had bad consequences. I see God as being this same way. When one of my children became an adult, he ventured far off the path but he has found his way back. God has a way of allowing us to venture as far as we want, but most of us find our way back eventually and most of us are apologetic about things from the past when we do get back.

While my child was gone astray, I called him every once in a while or would wait for him to call on me. Usually when he called on me it was because he needed or wanted something. Sometimes I gave, sometimes I did not give anything but a little wisdom. I mourned my child being so far away from me. I missed him terribly. I would give anything to have him home again.

I firmly believe this is how God is. God is a loving parent that wants what is best for his children. He allows us to do as we please for the most part, paying the consequences as we go. Trials and tribulations are usually of our own making or a position we have put ourselves in has caused us some harm at times. Pain is usually something that brings us to God, just like a child hurting himself runs to his mother to ease the pain and make it all better. When I cannot find a way to make my child feel better, it breaks my heart to see my child in pain. I imagine it hurts God to see us in pain as well. Sometimes I can almost see him shaking his head at some decision I have made or holding His arms out wide to hold me when I need the loving arms of a parent. I can almost see Him laugh at something funny I may do or say. I will always be there for my children in this way and God will always be there for me and anyone that knows or wants to know this Father of mine.

God Is and God is a loving parent.

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