Victoria

Hosea 1: 2-10

2 When the LORD began to speak through Hosea, the LORD said to him, "Go, take to yourself an adulterous wife and children of unfaithfulness, because the land is guilty of the vilest adultery in departing from the LORD." 3 So he married Gomer daughter of Diblaim, and she conceived and bore him a son. 4 Then the LORD said to Hosea, "Call him Jezreel, because I will soon punish the house of Jehu for the massacre at Jezreel, and I will put an end to the kingdom of Israel. 5 In that day I will break Israel's bow in the Valley of Jezreel." 6 Gomer conceived again and gave birth to a daughter. Then the LORD said to Hosea, "Call her Lo-Ruhamah, for I will no longer show love to the house of Israel, that I should at all forgive them. 7 Yet I will show love to the house of Judah; and I will save them—not by bow, sword or battle, or by horses and horsemen, but by the LORD their God." 8 After she had weaned Lo-Ruhamah, Gomer had another son. 9 Then the LORD said, "Call him Lo-Ammi, for you are not my people, and I am not your God. 10 "Yet the Israelites will be like the sand on the seashore, which cannot be measured or counted. In the place where it was said to them, 'You are not my people,' they will be called 'sons of the living God.'

Hosea 1: 9 Lo-Ammi means not my people.

Victoria is my step-daughter. She is not my biological child. She was about 19 months old when her mom and I started dating. You see, her father had moved out of state and she lived with her mom all of the time. She began calling me "Bad" because she missed some syllables - I think.

She is four now and says all of the great sayings one can expect from a four year old. She expresses her mom's love of coffee, "Let's go to Starbuck's and have a frappuccino!" She is eating almost all the time; we try to limit her junk food - "can I please have one more junk?" She loves to "hug" her one-year-old brother and pull him down. And she loves to touch her older step-brother. She thinks her teacher is all-wise and corrects us when we say something "bad": "Oh, Mrs. Wasserman won't like that."

And going to bed is always a chore. There are many excuses each night: "I need a drink of water/vitamin/my doll/my bear/mecidine." "I didn't kiss you good-night." "You didn't say 'Sweet dreams, too.'" After all that, she comes out squinting: "I can't go to sleep. You guys are being too loud." But the real clincher is when she says: "I love you, Daddy." You see, sometimes she calls me "Brad" and sometimes she calls me "Dad," but it really doesn't matter because she is learning from me how a dad loves his child. I imagine that is how Hosea felt…


A Faithful Response: Take your daughter/step-daughter out on a date.