Calling Jehovah 'Daddy'

[carlos]

17 hours ago, harmania said:

I've sometimes heard use of word ''heavenly father'' in prayer.

 

"Heavenly Father" is a favorite expression in my congregation, and it's beautiful to hear it from the lips of students who are makign good progress.

 

I guess it's ok since Jesus taught his disciples to use it (before they were even anointed).

 

(Matthew 6:14) “For if you forgive men their trespasses, your heavenly Father will also forgive you;

(Matthew 6:32) . . .Your heavenly Father knows that you need all these things.

 

 

[GrumpysWife]

It is my way to to address my dear heavenly Father. I guess I never gave thought to whether it was proper. That's what I was taught as a child. 

[Alexa]

To all, I very often to use father. I seldom use heavenly father, it's like something uncomfortable to say when your not in a perfect state. Its just a model to honor first Jehovah I find it not so good honorable mention some words as like daddy    

[Ferb]

On 9/12/2017 at 2:24 PM, carlos said:

 

David, while I think your comment is interesting and appreciate the alternative viewpoint, I think it is a bit exaggerated to say that "father" is no longer used in English and that it's comparable to the word "thou". By looking at movies, newspapers, books or simply conversations people have, I would say the word "father" in English is alive and well. Probably "father" is not the most popular word among toddlers and small children, but it's quite the standard term among adults to refer to your male parent.

 

 

I must admit, Google ngram shows 'father' as a more common word than 'dad', even now (though I'm not sure what sources are included in that measure - maybe things like scientific texts or other written language rather than being representative of conversation).  Now while I still have never heard any of my peers or anyone younger than myself address their father that way, clearly you're right that it's more common than I tend to think of it.  I guess I would myself sometimes use it in the objective case (and talking about fathers in the abstract sense, never about my own), but never in the vocative case which is how it's usually being used in a prayer.

 

 

 

On 9/12/2017 at 6:15 PM, harmania said:

I've sometimes heard use of word ''heavenly father'' in prayer.

 

 

22 hours ago, Alexa said:

To all, I very often to use father. I seldom use heavenly father, it's like something uncomfortable to say when your not in a perfect state. Its just a model to honor first Jehovah I find it not so good honorable mention some words as like daddy    

 

Now the varying views over 'heavenly father' do come as a surprise to me.  That's the phrase that's always been used in our congregation.  That in my congregation I feel pressured to use the term 'heavenly father' because that's the usual term of address in our congregation's public prayers whereas people in other congregations have only 'heard of it' or even find it 'uncomfortable', I think just shows the original point I was making - how comfortable you feel with a term used in prayer depends largely on how accustomed you are to hearing it and can vary a lot from place to place and time to time.

(That having been said, we must all be somewhat used to that term, since it's in some songs.  Well, I'm not sure it is anymore, but it certainly has been - 'Heavenly father, sovereign lord, may your great name forever be adored', right?)

[Omoyeme]

Like most, I would never use the term "Daddy" to refer to my Heavenly Father.  Then too, depending on where one resides in the world, many brothers and sisters do not believe that addressing Jehovah as "papa" is offensive.  Some in the North American/European continent would feel uncomfortable using the phrase "Papa Jehovah" but that is a common phrase among Jehovah's people in certain parts of Africa.  Please view the JWB video and take note of this sister's comment at the 2:00 mark.

 

https://tv.jw.org/#en/mediaitems/pub-jwbrd_201606_2_VIDEO

 

Certainly, if the Branch felt that it was disrespectful to use any other term but "Father", then there would have been some corrective measures taken.  (Side note: In my travels to Africa, I've also heard friends refer to Jehovah as "Sir" and "Baba" (translation: Father).

 

[Old]

The only time I felt the word Papa carried the weight needed to address my Heavenly Father was the way Eddie Fisher voiced it in "Oh My Papa." I don't pray that way, but I do think his expression of his literal father would not be an inappropriate way to address Jehovah in prayer.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6dWOsP_wly0

 

[Old]

In the above post, I intended to use the word 'reverence but due to a short circuit in my brain, I could not come up with the right word until it was too late to edit.

Reverence not weight. 

[Old]

On 9/13/2017 at 3:36 AM, carlos said:

 

"Heavenly Father" is a favorite expression in my congregation, and it's beautiful to hear it from the lips of students who are makign good progress.

 

I guess it's ok since Jesus taught his disciples to use it (before they were even anointed).

 

(Matthew 6:14) “For if you forgive men their trespasses, your heavenly Father will also forgive you;

(Matthew 6:32) . . .Your heavenly Father knows that you need all these things.

 

 

"Our Dear Heavenly Father" followed by "Jehovah" is often used in our area. I like either version of it. I consider it a title of grandeur.  Personally, I often use: 'Dear Father'; 'Dear heavenly Father'; 'All Mighty God Jehovah', at various times, but would never use 'daddy', to me it seems demeaning. Maybe some had a more lovable father than I did, he was a good man, but not lovable.

[tekmantwo]

7 hours ago, Old said:

"Our Dear Heavenly Father" followed by "Jehovah" is often used in our area. I like either version of it. I consider it a title of grandeur.  Personally, I often use: 'Dear Father'; 'Dear heavenly Father'; 'All Mighty God Jehovah', at various times, but would never use 'daddy', to me it seems demeaning.

This is almost exactly how I feel.  

Thank you my Brother for putting my thoughts and feelings into words,  better than I could have done. ..

[ReadYourBible]

While I have never referred to Jehovah as Dad, Daddy etc, I have referred to him as Papa, even as recently as this evening.  In reference to my jumping up on his lap like a little girl would, asking him to tell me a story or tell me something he wishes to convey to me personally, like a papa (father) and I would listen with love and affection.

 

While I respect each of your opinions, I find it troublesome the attitudes coming from this thread.  Saddening actually, because you are imputing a wrong motive.

 

https://wol.jw.org/en/wol/d/r1/lp-e/2009247

 

I'm sure the jews would have said the same thing if they had heard Jesus using the word abba because it was mostly used by small children. 

 

Some of us aren't using a specific word to be disrespectful, but rather to speak on a personal and intimate level with Jehovah, someone whom we belong to, we aren't being casual or rude, rather we are expressing a heart felt feeling in a word which we feel describes that feeling. Motive matters.  We aren't forgetting he is the most high, or not acknowledging who we are speaking to is also our Creator,  Universal Sovereign AND Father.  

 

I could say a lot more, but frankly I'm so peeved at some of the comments I'd best just walk away.  

 

Edited December 15, 2017 by cerebral ecstasy

[sunshine]

My mum does this occassionally but only  when she is frightened or shocked ... never in conversation or prayer (that I know); if for example she is about to fall (literally) she may cry out "Daddy!!" ...  I understand the spirit in which it is made and I sincerely believe Jehovah understands where this comes from.  She was an orphan at 2 years of age and has suffered terribly from real hunger (not skipping a meal - starvation in Africa) to much worse  (abuse on all levels that is her story to tell not mine), that she has this reflex when shock short circuits her conscious thinking to call out the equivalent of "Papa/Abba!"  is  between her and the Father she never had.

 

I understand the sentiments regarding a formalistic usage of certain terms and for English speakers "dad" "daddy" has a certain casuality that makes us uncomfortable, but in the intimacy of ones heart Jehovah reads the motives.  Irony of irony myself also ended up a "Fatherless child" and the comfort of knowing (even if we don't formaly express it in public) that we at long LONG last have someone we too can address with the one word we could never use as children can still move me to tears. 

 

My mother is 86.

Edited December 15, 2017 by sunshine

[Ferb]

On 12/13/2017 at 1:01 AM, Old said:

"Our Dear Heavenly Father" followed by "Jehovah" is often used in our area. I like either version of it. I consider it a title of grandeur.  Personally, I often use: 'Dear Father'; 'Dear heavenly Father'; 'All Mighty God Jehovah', at various times, but would never use 'daddy', to me it seems demeaning. Maybe some had a more lovable father than I did, he was a good man, but not lovable.

Interesting.  I likewise think 'Heavenly Father' seems like a title of grandeur, but to me, that's exactly what I dislike about it.  I feel like prayers are supposed to be said in natural language, and I find it hard to imagine that Jehovah is impressed by fancy titles.  You suggest an interesting possibility that people's feelings about the terms 'dad' or 'daddy' are connected to what their own fathers are like.  You're not the first to say it seems demeaning, and if it were being suggested to be demeaning to the person saying it - because it makes them sound more like a child - that could be understood, though why it's a bad thing for us to be humbled while speaking to Jehovah still wouldn't be entirely clear.  But why it should be considered in any way demeaning to Jehovah has never really been explained by anyone making that argument, as far as I recall.  But if the argument is primarily being made by people who grew up using that term for people who displayed unlovable personalities that they wouldn't want to associate with Jehovah, well then, the argument is more understandable.

 

Now I think about it, we've kind of heard that point before.  In the Imitate Their Faith book, in the chapter on Joseph, it points out, "By that time in his life as a boy, Jesus already had warm feelings about the word “father”—feelings shaped largely by his years with Joseph."  In most of our cultures today, the way we come to understand the word 'Dad' will similarly be quite subjective depending on our upbringing - for some that word will invoke trust and warmth, an implication of a totally trusted provider, for others it will be equally emotionally associated with the idea of someone begrudging or even negligent in their responsibility and may well seem insulting.  It's a word that can mean very different things to different people, which is perhaps why some find it appropriate and some not.  'Dad' is probably therefore inappropriate for public prayers, even if you find it appropriate for private prayers, just because you can be quite sure not all of your audience are going to understand the same meaning from that word as you do.  'Father', though, not usually being the term we used to address our Dads as children, perhaps doesn't have that same emotional connection, whether positive or negative depending on our childhood, so it's a more neutral and objective term.

[dove]

When teaching his disciples how to pray, Jesus said, 'You must pray then this way: "Our Father in the heavens, "..

Edited December 16, 2017 by Dove

[Katty]

I think 'Daddy' sounds quite disrespectful to me, but in the American South the term, 'Daddy' is used in a different sense from merely meaning "father", which makes it sound very wrong to me.