Just as it is impossible to lift others higher than where you’re standing, so it’s virtually impossible to help your children while you remain distant from God. Not only for the sake of your own joy and spiritual health, but for your children’s sake, draw close to God by all the means He’s given.

This post is intended to be an encouragement to fathers and fathers-to-be. Sometimes it helps me to boil things down to their essence, to bypass long books and deep discussions to get to a simple list of what I ought to be doing. As I’ve reflected lately on being a father, it strikes me that I’ve never seen anyone who did the things on this list fail as a father. Certainly there’s more that could be written–and I know full well that making it simple doesn’t make it easy–but here is what I believe to be the essence of the call of Christian dads.

Love the Lord

Just as it is impossible to lift others higher than where you’re standing, so it’s virtually impossible to help your children while you remain distant from God. Not only for the sake of your own joy and spiritual health, but for your children’s sake, draw close to God by all the means He’s given.

Love your Wife

Our youth-centered culture is constantly trying to invert the structure of our homes, making children the center and the implicit leaders. But as loving as it seems to be hyper-attentive to your kids, it’s far more important for you to love your wife, to build your home around the marriage relationship, not the relationship between parents and kids. In your love for your wife is your children’s best example and great security.

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