“Why, Lord, do you stand far off? Why do you hide yourself in times of trouble?” (Psalm 10:1 NIV)

My dad has always been an extremely important and special person in my life and I love him very much. He wasn’t always the perfect father, naturally – none of us are – but he was as near to that perfection mark as is humanly possible. In fact, he only had one thing I could fault him on: He tended to drink too much alcohol, and on one occasion (and only one!), he came home drunk…

My brother and I were already in bed when the night of terror began. My parents started to fight. We had never heard our dad yelling like this! We both crawled under the bed and cowered in fear, and I began to pray for peace to return to my home.

It was there, under my bed that night, that I first felt the presence of my Heavenly Father: “I am with you. Don’t worry.”

My brother and I stayed under that bed for at least two hours, but I knew we were safe because my Heavenly Father told me we were.

Verse 7 of Psalms 10 became especially meaningful to me that night: “His mouth is full of lies and threats; trouble and evil are under his tongue.” (NIV). Nonetheless, I had the peace that can only come from God in my heart.

Then, everything went quiet. Our home was once again at peace. My brother and I crawled up into our beds and went to sleep. The next morning my father felt very bad about what had transpired, and he apologized over and over again. Although he did continue to drink alcohol excessively, this scene was never repeated.

I learned a lot that night. I learned that no matter what transpired, my Heavenly Father was always with me. Even if my own earthly father became the source of pain, my Heavenly Father would never forsake me: “The Lord is King for ever and ever; the nations will perish from his land. You, Lord, hear the desire of the afflicted; you encourage them, and you listen to their cry, defending the fatherless and the oppressed, so that mere earthly mortals will never again strike terror.” (Psalms 10:16-18 NIV)

In His love,
Rob Chaffart

(To access the entire “The Sling for God” devotional series, please click here.)