What made watching this movie so powerful to me, was reading an article today by Tim Challies entitled, "God, Protect My Girls." In the article, he says one of the things that he prays for is that God would protect his daughters from himself. No that does not mean he is abusive, but that we fathers are sinful people who do sinful things. Our selfishness and pride can harm the people who are closest to us.
But I believe it goes deeper than this. God has chosen to reveal himself to us as our Father. I recognize that we should never judge our heavenly father by the actions of our earthly father, however, it is very easy to do so. I have met so many people who find it very difficult to call God their father, because of how their earthly father treated them.
Knowing this I try my best to be a good dad, but I know I am at heart a "ragamuffin." I am a sinner, I make more mistakes than I could ever count. And so I pray God protect my daughters from me. Help them to know that even if I fail them, you never will. Even if I let them down, help them to know You never will. And so I not only pray, I have to make sure I tell them that their father loves them, but he has and will continue to fail. I am a sinful man, but I have a heavenly father who loves me and He loves them too. I have to ask them to forgive me and then point them to the one who loves them perfectly.
