I remembered comforting her over the phone, while dabbing away the tears that were flowing down my own face. I remembered attending the wake service every single night. I remembered hugging her stoic body during the funeral service. And, I remembered every single word I wrote to her in *this* post. 

It came to me as I was preparing for a message to share with the youths of Youth Impact yesterday afternoon. 

I recalled the second night of the wake service vividly. That was the night my friend wrote a eulogy for her dad. There were so many similarities between her and her father, and I remembered telling her that although he may no longer be with us here physically on earth, he lives on in her heart forever. 

I was reminded of this as I looked to God and this was what He revealed: While we may bear physical resemblance to our parents and share certain similarities (in liking, character and nature), we are also encoded with the spiritual DNA of our Heavenly Father. The more we know Him, the more we discover ourselves and who we are meant to be. 

Three simple points on the heart and nature of our Heavenly Father:

1. He corrects, but never condemns.

- Correction is aimed to sift out what is impure and weed out what is not right. Condemnation is of the Enemy and it is destructive. "So now, there is no condemnation for those who belong to Jesus Christ" (Romans 8:1, New Living Translation). 

2. He disciplines, but never punishes. 

- To discipline is to correct in love. To punish is to correct by giving what is deserved. Discipline promotes growth, punishment stifles growth. 

3. His love is eternal and unconditional.

- Because He IS love, He is everything that is mentioned in 1 Corinthians 13:4-8 -- "patient, kind, not envious, does not boast, is not proud... is not self-seeking, not easily angered, keeps no records of wrongs...". And, His love for us is forever, "I'm absolutely convinced that nothing - nothing living or dead, angelic or demonic, today or tomorrow, high or low, thinkable or unthinkable - absolutely nothing can get between us and God's love" (Romans 8:38-39, The Message).