If you think about it, being someone’s child isn’t a choice you get to make. Your parents are your parents whether you like it or not. It is how you came to live – a fact of life – you are someone’s child. 
But, if you come to God the heavenly Father, you do have a choice. You get to choose whether to accept his free offer of adoption: “But when the set time had fully come, God sent his Son, born of a woman, born under the law, to redeem those under the law, that we might receive adoption to sonship. Because you are his sons, God sent the Spirit of his Son into our hearts, the Spirit who calls out, “Abba, Father.” (Galatians 4:4-6 NIV). (Abba literally means “my father”)
God loves us and hates to see the hurt we have inside and even cause others, the pain caused by years and generations of bad choices and living in a world of selfishness. Loving your fellow man and living together in peace and equality is a great idea, possibly THE great idea, but the greed and selfishness of some always seems to get in the way. However, if we choose to accept the offer of adoption from the Father, the scripture says he sends “…the Spirit of his Son into our hearts…” That may not seem like much if you don’t know his son Jesus, but if you take time to read about him in any of the gospels in the bible (Matthew, Mark, Luke, John), you’ll find that the Spirit of Jesus – the love of Jesus – is precisely what we need. No greater love has ever been known than that which was lived, and died, by Jesus Christ.
The fact of the matter is that even with your earthly parents, you cannot “earn” your position as their child; it is the first and greatest gift they give to you. So it is with your Heavenly Father; you cannot “earn” your position as His child – it is a gift He is able to offer to you because of what Jesus did – taking on Himself the punishment for your bad choices and the bad choices of the entire world. No amount of good works will ever, ever earn you the position of being His child, but the simple act of accepting His offer can and does just that. Don’t turn away from Him because you don’t like his followers (like me) or because of having to accept his act of charity – just see the amazing benefit of having a choice – the choice to become a child of the Living God. Why not let Him send the Spirit of his Son into your heart today? He’s as close as the breath of air on your face, as close as the whisper on your tongue, as close as the cry of your heart…