This makes ALL the difference.

I don’t love going to the cemetery as it makes me feel sad and I never quite know what to do when I’m there.

But yesterday, we stopped by on our way home from the mountains. After I showed the kids Papa’s new grave marker (and assured them Grandma was NOT currently there  😉), they slipped back to the van and I lingered a little longer.

As I stared and thought about some of the things that are beginning to unfold in this season, a specific moment came to mind.

The first year we did Betty’s Run for ALS about a month after my dads diagnosis, I was dogging it up the last leg of the giant hill, having not done much training, fairly convinced I was not going to make it across the finish line.

And then, from the walkers path, I heard someone shout, “Go Step Go!” (The Filipino accent always gave him away.)

It was my dad.

That was the first and only time he was able to do the walk and in the midst of his own suffering, he was cheering me on.

My relationship with dad has been on a journey since he passed away— oddly, without him actually being here. God has been bringing to light my *interpretations* of things my dad said/didn’t say and did/didn’t do over the years we had together. In the mix of all of these things, the wrestling, the tears, the laughter and the questions, this is what God gave me as I lingered by the graveside: Go, Steph, go.

What is the first thing that comes to mind when you think about how your dad feels the fact that you are his? How has it influenced how you think God feels about you?

I wonder how different our lives would be if we simply believed God is a good, good, Father? Who is for us, not against us? Celebrating our attempts not criticizing our imperfection. Championing our calling, not condemning us  for making a few wrong turns.

For me, beginning to understand both my earthly and heavenly Father’s heart— that they DELIGHT in me, has made ALL the difference.

“Therefore since we are surrounded by such a great cloud of witnesses, let us throw off everything that hinders and the sin that so easily entangles and let us run with perseverance the race marked out for us, fixing our eyes on Jesus, the author and perfector of our faith.”

Jesus secured the Father’s heart for you— He is FOR you. There are so many faithful people who’ve gone before you, cheering you on in the great cloud of witnesses.

If you fix your eyes on Jesus, eventually you will see him looking back at you. Smiling, nodding, believing in you.

So, now what? Take that step of faith you know God’s been nudging you to take believing that your Father delights in you.

Go (insert your name), go!