Great question! If only all Christians were confronted with it on a semi-regular basis.
I never called Him "Dad" or "Daddy", but He isn't a distant father to me. We have been brought up to be very formal in prayers with a salutation, Dear Lord or Dear Heavenly Father, and a closing, "Amen". I often talk to Him during the day as I know He is right beside me. Something aggravating happens and I ask Him, "Really?" or "Did you see that?". Other times I have to make a decision, and I say, "Well, what do you think?" Or my kids praise God in word or song and I can imagine Him just smiling. To me He is like my adoptive father who loves and cares for me more than anybody else. My father who came to find me when I was lost. Maybe I will start calling Him "Dad".
Thanks Big Moose.
I initially struggled to address the Lord as "daddy God", perhaps because it necessitated me climbing down to the level of a child, just like my own kids were to me when they were little.
One of my challenges to fellow christians, especially those who struggle, is to get them to reverse there declarations of love for God. ie. all the time we declare our love of God in songs of worship, we remain in control.
Telling God, "I love you" puts us in a dominant position as the giver, giving towards God.
However getting them to repeat before God, "I know that you love me, I know you love me." is a very different thing altogether. I have seen the most mature christians break down, completely unable to say it because it cuts too deep into their wall of defense!
If you cannot tell God that you believe He loves you, it proves the absolute necessity of getting to a place where you can say it.
Basically, if we cannot speak out to God, that we know and fully believe that he passionately loves us, we are just faking it, we are the walking wounded of the Body of Christ.
I know a lovely feisty christian lady in her 70s. In our home group meeting one day I challenged them all to say it to God, at home if necessary. We discussed the why's and wherefore's and everyone there admitted the struggle they had at the idea.
Later on I got a phone call from this lady. At home she had gone through the exercise with extreme difficulty and much weeping, but as she gradually progressed through with the words, she experienced probably the greatest experience of release she had ever know, as for the first time in her life she truly felt the love of the Lord flow through her.