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Culture has a habit of blabeling daddy issues as a funny or shady reference.

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And the older I get though, the more that I realize that many of us are

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challenged with daddy issues and we don't even recognize it. Whether our

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daddy issues were caused by our dad or our mom, there's something to be said

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about the impact that the person who brought us into this world leaves on us.

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To be honest, when I was younger I never really cared about having a relationship

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with my dad. As I grow older, I actually do care. But it's not the person that I

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care about, it's the actual relationship of a father to son that I care about.

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The older I get, the more I wonder what life would have been for me if I had a

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consistent father figure from the man who conceived me with my mom in my life.

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I wonder how many insecurities I would have avoided, how many lessons I would

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have been taught, how I would have been more intentional about showing up in my

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relationships, and how the younger version of me would have grown into a

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different version of who I am today.

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But this one thing I do know, everything happens for a reason. We don't always

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understand the reason, we don't always agree with the reason, we don't always

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like the reason. But the reason always happens. And the moment that we embrace

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the reason is the moment that just like a child hugs their parents and sinks

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into them, is the moment that we sink into healing. And so I'm free from daddy

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issues, not because I've ignored it, but because one day I stood in the mirror

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and I embraced who I became as a result of my experiences. The truth is though,

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even in my freedom, parts of who I am are shaped by those experiences. Both the

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good things and the bad things, it's intertwined into my DNA, but I have to

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make a choice to cut it off. So if daddy issues for you looks like low

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self-esteem, trust issues, toxic relationships, sit in the reality of what

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is and let go of what should not be. Because the moment that we expose the

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truth to ourselves and to God is the moment that we know what needs to change.

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And the moment that we know what needs to change is the moment that we get the

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opportunity to heal. And the moment that we take the opportunity to heal is the

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moment we become who God has called us to be.