Finding Forgiveness From Dad - The One Year Father-Daughter Devotions

Finding Forgiveness from Dad

God is often referred to as a father. God our Father. God the Father. The heavenly Father. Father to the fatherless. And it’s a title God embraces. He refers to himself as our Father in both the Old and New Testaments. Dads and daughters can learn a lot about the purpose of fathers and family relationships by looking at God. One such lesson in the book of Hosea shows us discipline, repentance, and forgiveness in the father-child relationship.

In Hosea, God speaks to his people and refers to them as children. He explains both his love for them and his disappointment and anger at their sinfulness. The Israelites had turned away from God and put their trust in other gods. But the book doesn’t end with God as an angry, disappointed father. God ends it with a message of hope and love.

If you’ll repent, if you’ll acknowledge you were wrong, if you will ask forgiveness, if you will come back to me and stop looking for love and hope and help from others . . . I will heal and love and forgive, like a father.

There are always consequences for sin. But God offers forgiveness and love if his people return to him and confess. That’s essentially the statement of a loving father to his children: Your sin is wrong, but it can all be forgiven and worked out.

The lesson for daughters is to be humble, to repent, and to ask forgiveness when you mess up. The lesson for dads is to forgive, to nurture, and to heal the relationship.

Daddy-Daughter Time

Dads, when you show compassion, you put on the heart of God for all to see. Plus, you create an environment for your daughter to be completely open with you.

Daughters, talk with your dad about what he does that makes you feel loved and accepted, and what he might do that would make you feel safe to ask for forgiveness. Do you find it hard to come to your dad and confess something you’ve done wrong? He’ll want to know how he can better show you that he loves you.

What’s The Word?

Bring your confessions, and return to the LORD. Say to him, “Forgive all our sins and graciously receive us, so that we may offer you our praises.” . . . The LORD says, “Then I will heal you of your faithlessness; my love will know no bounds, for my anger will be gone forever.”   Hosea 14:2, 4