If My Dad Said it…
We’d played capture-the-flag and painted pet rocks. We’d sung silly songs and splashed in the pool. But as hungry little tummies announced their cry for dinner with a grumpy rumble, another day of camp came to an end.
“That’s what makes day camp the best camp!” I said to my co-counselor as I pointed to the snaking line of cars that wound around the edge of the parking lot like a metallic rainbow thread.
My friend nodded in agreement. And we crossed the green grass to greet the parents who had come to take their children home.
We passed out hugs and high fives, grins and good-bye’s. Then, as the kids climbed into the waiting cars, we erupted into our singsong chant—“Get some sleep when the moon’s in the sky, so you can play with us again when the sun rises high!”
We sang the familiar words like a benediction and a celebration all wrapped up in one. And our campers replied with waggling fingers and satisfied smiles.
When the last car disappeared down the road in a cloud of dust, we exhaled a collective sigh.
“That’s a wrap,” one counselor declared with a grateful grin.
“And we didn’t lose a kid, lose our minds, or lose our sense of humor!” another added with a tired giggle.
We picked up left-over water bottles and stray soccer balls as we talked about our plan for the coming day; then we grabbed our car keys so we could head home, too.
I was walking to my car when I noticed the freckled-faced boy in the blue baseball cap sitting beneath the old oak tree near the upper edge of the parking lot.
“Charlie!” I exclaimed, my stomach lurching with surprise, “I didn’t know you were still here.”
“Oh, don’t worry,” he said with a shrug of his slender shoulders. “My dad’s coming.”
I glanced at the parking lot and realized I was the only counselor left. “Well, I’ll wait with you until he gets here.” I plopped down beside him under a leafy canopy of green and leaned against the rugged trunk of that old tree.
Charlie flashed me a crooked grin and offered me an apple from his Spider Man lunch box.
I glanced at my watch. “Where’s your dad?”
“I don’t know,” he answered. “But I know he’s coming. He promised he’d pick me up.”
He sank his teeth into the apple I’d politely declined and introduced me to his freshly-painted pet rock.
Ten minutes passed. I stood and craned my neck to see if I could spot a car coming down the lonely gravel road.
Charlie stood up, too. He tossed his apple core into a patch of nearby weeds and wiped his sticky hands on his shorts. Sensing my concern, he reached out and patted my arm. “My dad is coming,” he said with quiet confidence. “He promised he’d pick me up.”
I sat down again beside my unruffled camper and tried to hide my rising worry. I listened for the crunch of tires on gravel, the purr of an engine, or the squeak of brakes. But all I heard was the whisper of the wind in the branches above our heads, and Charlie’s high-pitched giggle as he told me his funniest knock-knock jokes.
The minutes ticked by and my thoughts raced in anxious circles. Where is Charlie’s dad? Did he really say he was coming? What if he never shows up?
While my feelings swayed between fear and frustration, Charlie continued to calmly rehearse his father’s promise. Over and over again.
“My dad is coming. He promised he’d pick me up.”
Finally when we’d run out of knock-knock jokes, and what-if’s had sabotaged my peace, I spotted a cloud of dust at the end of the gravel road.
Charlie leaped to his feet and clapped his hands in delight.
“That’s my dad!” he exclaimed. “That’s my dad!”
The truck screeched into the parking lot and a red-faced man tumbled out the door. He ran to Charlie and swooped up his son in his arms. “I got caught in a meeting at work,” he explained. “I’m sorry I’m so late.”
Charlie acknowledged the apology with a playful hug. “It’s okay, Dad. You said you’d come, so I knew you would.”
The man looked me in the eye and apologized once more.
“It’s alright,” “I said, as my anxiety gave way to relief. “Charlie wasn’t even worried.”
Charlie shrugged his slender shoulders and flashed me a knowing grin. “That’s ‘cuz if my Dad says it, I know he’ll do it.”
It’s been decades since I worked at summer camp, but when I opened my Bible this morning and read the resolute words of King David in Psalm 18:30, I found myself picturing a freckle-faced little boy in a blue baseball cap.
“All the Lord’s promises prove true,” David proclaims as he puts words to what he knows of God .
Of course, it’s easy to imagine David penning that declaration from the comfort of his pristine palace. It’s not difficult to believe God’s promises are true when life is going how we’d imagined. But David actually scripted those bold words at the end of an excruciating season of waiting.
Though God chose David to be king while he was just a teenager, it took years for God’s promise to unfold. In the bewildering gap between David’s sacred anointing and his royal appointing, he was mocked by his own brothers, betrayed by confidantes and hunted by the ruler who was supposed to protect him. In the end, David spent more than a decade on the run before God placed him on the throne.
David could have given up on God in the midst of his unexpected delay. He could have grown anxious or bitter, wary or worried. Instead, David rooted his confidence in God’s word. He planted His hope in God’s promises.
David’s fierce confidence was anchored in God’s unfailing faithfulness. Like the little boy who waited with me under an old oak tree, David trusted his Father’s word— even when what his eyes could see didn’t seem to match what God had said.
And, friends, that’s the truth in which we can anchor our confidence, too.
In our waiting or our celebrating, when life is going according to plan or when it isn’t, we can pin our confidence to God’s promises and place our trust in His word.
Because if our Heavenly Father said it; He’ll always do it!
Thanks for spending time with us today. We hope you’re encouraged as you linger in this place. Drop a word in the comments and let us know which one God’s promises you’re trusting today.
Also, if you’d like stay connected, feel free to join our community and receive encouragement in your inbox now and then. When you subscribe, you’ll get a free resource to remind you God is with you. You can also find more encouragement at Proverbs 31. Today, I’m there sharing a devotion about how to pray when words fail.
What a great reminder that regardless of the circumstances that I “see” all around me, my God is Faithful and True to His Word. He will never leave me or forsake me and ALL His promises are yes and amen!
Thank you for this encouraging word.
Thanks for taking time to stop by and be encouraged, Lori!
Thank you for your words. I love your devotions most because they really stick with you, and make sense to me. I remember them as needed.
Kristie, Thanks for taking time to read my words. What a gift to know that sometimes my scribbles “stick” and God uses them to encourage you right when you need them.
When ‘what my eyes see doesn’t match what God said He would do’ I start to lose faith even though I know God is faithful. This was a gentle rebuke to me today in my unfaithfulness to God when He is always faithful and would never not do what He said He would.
Tricia, it’s so hard to anchor our trust in God’s words over our sight. I’m still working at this EVERY DAY. Thankful He’s patient with us as we grow in faith!
That was so good… Oh, to have the confidence of that little boy! Great blog!
Yes to child-like faith!
After a day at the hospital with my aged dad and his cancer surgery, I was encouraged to find your words. Yes, God’s promises never fail. My thoughts all the day long have been of God’s promises and his unfailing love. Thank you yet again for your encouraging words sent from the Heavenly Father.
I find this in my email box, as I sit waiting. My dad has been in ICU on vent, due to Covid pneumonia. He’s flatlined once, blood pressure up and down, in addition continuous dialysis. Today my dads right lung collapsed, and a few hours later, she called to say our other sister who is with him today, expressed such worry and concern as she and my bonus mom were asked to leave the room, while his vitals were dropping and they bagged him as if he would flatline again. Another hour passed and they placed our dad in another induced coma, and we wait. God is extraordinary, his ways are so much higher than our own. Thank you for your post.
Dear Jesus, meet Danyel in the waiting with your peace. Give her glimpses of your presence and wrap her in your love. And, Jesus, please heal her dad. Strengthen his body and restore his health. Amen
Brenda, may you experience the presence of Jesus right there with you as you linger with your dad and anchor your hope in God’s promises.
This was quite a treat for me to read after a day at the hospital with my aged dad and his cancer surgery. My thoughts all the day long have been of God’s promises and his unfailing love. Thank you yet again for your encouraging words sent from the Heavenly Father.
My favorite scripture is Psalm 40……I waited patiently for the Lord ; he turned to me and heard my cry. He lifted me out of the slimy pit, out of the mud and mire; he set my feet on a rock and gave me a firm place to stand. He put a new song in my mouth, a hymn of praise to our God. Many will see and fear the Lord and put their trust in him.
Psalms 40:1-3 NIV
https://bible.com/bible/111/psa.40.1-3.NIV
I love that one, too!
This is such an encouraging reminder and definitely one I need. I’ve been praying for my daughter for over nine years that the Lord would draw her back to Himself ( even save her if that’s the case) and bring her out of the lifestyle she’s been living in. Three days ago she gave us news that will only take her deeper into that lifestyle. We are deeply grieved. So, in my grief, I began questioning the Lord on so many things. My focus went off of Him and His promises and instead onto the hopeless looking situation. However, I’m very grateful that He never lets us go and enables me to hold on to His word because without the Lord and His word there is no hope.
Lord, cultivate in me a heart like Charlie’s, simple yet strong childlike faith that believes if his father said it, he will do it! You are faithful.
Jesus, I join Ang in her prayers for her daughter. Woo her daughter’s heart to yours. Do what only you can do and draw her daughter back to you. Set her free. Restore her to the joy of her salvation. And, Jesus, please buoy Ang’s heart with hope. Speak personally and powerfully to her as she leans into your word and listens for your voice. Give Ang a childlike faith and relentless perseverance in prayer. Amen.
That was a lovely reminder of God’s faithfulness to us! Just starting a Study about King David with Hillsdale College. So that was perfect timing & very sweet.
Debbie, Enjoy your study of King David. He has so much to teach us about trusting in God’s word!
God is filling me up today with His promises! Your reminder “God said it! He will do it”I will remember. Next Tuesday our daughter in-law has surgery. God has promised He will be with her. He will be with her family as the boys get very anxious.
God will be present in the surgery room!
God’s got her in His hands!
As I read your response I thought of a friend in the UK who has just received a stem cell transplant, my sister in South Africa who had colon cancer removed late last year, and 6 months later a portion of her liver. And I am in Canada worrying, wishing I was there to lend a hand. Both ladies have been part of our Prayer Ministry, hundreds of prayers going out on their behalf and I know and believe that God is right there giving them strength for each day …. but sometimes I load my self down with concern. Thank you for your reminder Alicia and Annetta – that God is doing His part … and all I have to do is continue to pray, and be content knowing He is there for me as well. I pray that your daughter-in-law will sail through her surgery. God Bless, Catherine
Catherine, Thanks for the prayers and the perspective today.
Dear Jesus, Please bring peace to Annetta’s daughter-in-law and her family. Make your presence known in that surgery room and in the waiting room and in all the moments in between. Amen
Your message today soothes my soul and reminds me of our good, good Father who is faithful and will bring His promises true-though the enemy may want us to question during the wait.
Amy, the enemy can be so ruthless as we stand in the gap between knowing God’s promises and seeing them come to fruition in our lives. May you be strengthened with hope in your waiting.
🥲 that was so beautiful!
Thank you 🙂