Like a queen to her adoring subjects, she expounded on her topic, gesticulating as she explained how she persuaded her father to concede to her demands. She was sure her wisdom, dispensed with grandiose ideas and a bit of condescension, would impress us. Not a chance. And no, we never asked for advice on being a Daddy’s Girl.

“You know how you just look at your Dad with big eyes and he’ll melt and give you whatever you ask for?!” She expected that to resonate with us. But no, we had no idea. Standing around her lawn chair, we wondered what this large, sassy thirty-something meant by her question.

I thought about the three of us and realized why her experience meant absolutely nothing to us. One of the teenagers had been abandoned by her father very early in life. Raised by a single mother, the teenager barely knew her biological father. He had seldom contributed any money, much less time, to her or her sister as they grew up. The other teenager—my daughter—had lived for almost half of her life without her father, who died of a sudden heart attack. In addition to parenting my children without my husband, I had also grown up fatherless after my Dad died in a plane crash.

And so we stared blankly at Miss Queen-of-her-lawn-chair. We couldn’t relate to the financial riches she spoke of or the idea of a father who granted her every wish. Nor did we understand her arrogant manipulative ways. Or how she took pride in the ability to get anything she wanted out of her father. That irked me. A lot. I have always hated Daddy’s Girls.

Honestly, it’s really cute when girls are little and they have a loving relationship with their father. I used to be thrilled that my daughter and husband shared such a close relationship. I looked forward to watching my daughter’s attachment to her father grow all of her life. Until his life ended and we didn’t have him anymore.

What I despise is when a spoiled princess grows up to demand things from her father, milking him out of time, money, and whatever else she can get. That “ability,” as lawn-chair Daddy’s Girl bragged about, does not translate to successful grown-up skills. Manipulation, entitlement, and mooching will not help you develop life skills of maturity, compromise, negotiation, and working hard toward a goal.

At my recent resentment over a spoiled Daddy’s Girl—and my wording sounds much gentler than I felt—I thought about my heavenly Father. Or rather, the Holy Spirit directed my mind to my Heavenly Father. I have lived 50+ years without my earthly father, but I can look back and trace how my heavenly Father has protected, provided for, and loved me all of my life. Yes, my earthly father loved Jesus and taught me about my Savior, but my heavenly Father has spoiled me with so much more. God made the amazing sacrifice of sending His son Jesus to die for my disobedience and bitterness.

God has given me His Word to learn from and study. What a gift! Everything I need for life and living, I can find in the Bible. I can spend my life studying it and never exhaust the rich meaning and application of God’s Word to my circumstances. I talk with Him any time, confident that He hears me. Although I ask for a lot, I trust Him to answer. He may not answer like I want Him to, but I can be sure that He knows best. My heavenly Father will always guide me, even when my requests are selfish and I veer in the wrong direction.

My Lord has richly blessed me with forgiveness, salvation, redemption, sanctification (even when it hurts), and the promise of eternal life with Him. I guess I can call myself a Daddy’s Girl, a child of my Heavenly Father’s. I am proud to belong to my Abba Father.

Lord, you have given me much more than I deserve. Thank you so much for sending Jesus in my place to die for the sin I so easily commit. Please forgive me and help me to appreciate and love you. Teach me to obey, even if it requires your discipline and conviction first. I love you, my Abba, and I am honored to be your daughter. Amen.