What I Believe vs What I Think...And How That Changes

God: as He longs for you.   Ingrim

What you think about God shapes your whole relationship with Him. What you believe God thinks about you determines how close you will grow toward Him.

I remember being a child, one who grew up in church and Sunday school, who saw her parents and sisters doing God-related lifestyle choices. God was real, God was important. I was puzzled immensely by the order to fear God, as many verses say...and I was ridden with guilt because I didn't know if I loved God. I believed in Him, most certainly....but those other things bothered and confused me. 
The more time passed, I came to think that fear was a fear of respect. Surely the Creator was deserving of respect, a reverence, honor. I began to realize that my trying to be afraid of God was not perhaps what was wanted, but the similar fear I might have for a parent, or some other adult authority figure---a much more higher being. 
Since my attempted reverent fear was gone, I was able to then see more and more how God loved me, how He was there for me, even in the littlest of things. I realized one day that I did indeed love God, and how vastly different my relationship was. It is again different, and again many other ways and times. Ever growing. 
The more time we spend with God, the Word, the more we find and learning about Him. This further changes how we think and believe some things, and continues to change in us.  It is wonderful for us to grow in God, to have a deeper relationship with Him.