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Father’s Day for some is a wonderful time of celebration and for other’s can be filled with mourning.

There are different types of mourning. You can mourn the loss of something and then there is mourning for something you never had. For me, there was at time in my life where I mourned the later.

My parents were divorced before I was born. I did not meet my biological father until I was 11 years old. It would be great if I could tell you that he was a wonderful father and everything worked out, but that is not the case. He never spent time with me and by the time I was 13, he chose not to see me, until I was 18. On my 18th birthday, I went to see him and to my surprise he told me, “I never want to see you again.”

Yes, you guessed it, I was messed up for a while. It took me some time to get my life together. Although I had been introduced to Christ at 8 years of age, I was not aware of what it really meant to be a Christ follower. No one had ever talked to me about having a relationship with God. They talked to me about being saved. It was a bunch of lists of “do this and don’t do that.” It was a check-the-box religion that said “come here, but don’t go there.”

One day in my mid-20s a scripture caught my eye. It said, “Those who are led by the Spirit of God are the children of God” (Romans 8:14).

Paul describes in Romans 8:12–17 our position in Christ as God’s children. those who have been saved through faith in Christ. Until that very moment I had never understood that I was actually a child of God and that He was my true father. I had always thought that I was fatherless when in reality, I absolutely never was. God had always been there and always had His hand on me. I just did not know the truth. God says, “And, I will be a Father to you, and you will be my sons and daughters, says the Lord Almighty” (2 Corinthians 6:18).

Now, Father’s Day is my favorite holiday. I love celebrating my Dad. I sing songs to him, I put messages to him on Facebook (yes, God reads) and I tell others about how wonderful He is every chance I get. In fact, I hope by sharing this today that I have encouraged you to truly know God with proper perspective.

As a Christ follower, he is your daddy.

Yvette Perrin is a columnist for The Charlotte Gazette. She can be reached at theword2yvette@gmail.com.