has a beautiful illustration of our Heavenly Father's love for us in her book The Shaping of a Christian Family:  How My Parents Nurtured My Faith. 

      She writes, "One day when our baby Valerie was a few weeks old, Jim sat down in a reclining chair and laid her on his chest, murmuring into her little ear and patting her.  After a while, thinking her asleep, he fell silent and dropped his arms to his sides, reveling in the slight weight of the tiny child on his body.  She lay quiet for a moment or two, then let out a sudden lusty wail.  Laughing, Jim clasped her immediately in his arms again and assured her of his presence.  Not feeling his hands upon her, she had, we supposed, lost the sense of "belongingness" and thought herself forsaken, when in fact she was lying as secure as ever on her father's bosom."

     Since I was not raised in a Christian home, there are simple ways that I am gleaning that could easily be incorporated into our lives...from bible reading with dad every evening to Saturday night prayer with him alone.  Her parents and grandparents examples of sold-outedness (for want of a better word) are evident by their actions....do my actions exhibit this same professed "devotion" to my Lord and what He wants?

     By God's grace, I pray so.