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FF 002 - Fatherhood Lessons
19 Plays28 days ago
What lessons have we learned as fathers? What is our best fatherhood lesson, and how important are dads to our lives? A panel of regular Christian dads discuss their journey thus far.
We also address the importance of relationship to our success as a father, both our relationship with Christ and then with our wives. Listen and then send in your comments to Jarod@preacherdad.com and be blessed!
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Transcript
Introduction to Fatherhood Friday
00:00:04
Speaker
Hello, everybody. Welcome to the Preacher Dad podcast. This is our Fatherhood Friday edition, and I hope that you're looking forward to hearing from our panel of dads, just regular average guys that are in the trenches, just like you are.
00:00:17
Speaker
Many of you out there in podcast land are struggling with some of the same things. And so today we talk about some of our fatherhood lessons, the things we've learned.
Lessons Learned as Christian Fathers
00:00:27
Speaker
as dads as Christian fathers and the things God has taught us we talk about mistakes our parents have made we talk about ways to include your kids in what you're doing we talk about how to let God be the one that works through you for your children we talk about relationships with our wives and how important it is that we have a good relationship with the mother of our children so I hope that you're encouraged by this episode today that is really our hope and prayer
00:00:53
Speaker
is that on these Fatherhood Friday episodes, you'd find something encouraging that would help you along your journeys, maybe something instructional, maybe you learned something you didn't know before, and that is our
Importance of Spiritual Growth
00:01:03
Speaker
desire. As always, this podcast is brought to you by Cornerstone Fellowship, just a little bit north of Tombsboro, Georgia, in the heart of Georgia land, peaches everywhere.
00:01:14
Speaker
we have a ah may may We may or may not have peaches everywhere, but we have a ah ah church here that loves to love on people. And we are trying to find out the needs in our community and how we can help meet those needs. So if you want to come and be a part of that, we would love to have you here.
00:01:32
Speaker
If you want to come and grow closer to the Lord Jesus, we would love to have you here as well. So I hope that you come and check us out. You can also look us up online. Find out more about us at cornerstonefellowship-ga.org. That's cornerstonefellowship-ga.org.
00:01:49
Speaker
dot o r g All right, let's go ahead and start Fatherhood Friday.
00:01:58
Speaker
Hi,
00:02:05
Speaker
everybody. Welcome to the Fatherhood Friday episode of the Preacher Dad Podcast. My name is Jared, and I'm bivocational pastor in the middle of nowhere, Georgia.
00:02:16
Speaker
And I'm here with Tony Russell. and Nathan Eisner and Matt Stewart. And, you know, we're just regular guys, just like you are, unless you're a gal, uh, you know, then we're definitely not like that, but, uh, we're just, you know, there's things that are important to us and that, uh, we value and that we want to talk about. And so we're going talk about them and hopefully Lord willing, it might bless you and encourage you.
00:02:45
Speaker
um so I'm going to, uh, I'm going to throw it over here to Mr. Nate and we're going to get started here. The topic today is fatherhood lessons um and sort of like the importance of fathers.
00:03:02
Speaker
I think fathers are pretty important ah to the continuation of the human race. There is a difference between parentage and fatherhood. That's for sure. Anybody can be a daddy, but it takes work to be a father.
00:03:16
Speaker
um Nate, what would you say, you're the youngest father among us, what would you say is the most significant fatherhood lesson that you've learned thus far?
00:03:28
Speaker
I had no idea I was going first, so here we go. Got him. Got me. Oh, yeah, so yeah good to be here. um So like I said in the last episode, you know, I'm um obviously, you know, I'm 26-year-old dad and of of two beautiful little girls.
00:03:45
Speaker
Um, so I still have a lot to learn. Uh, my youngest is one, my oldest is four. She just turned four and, um, they're awesome, uh, lessons that I have learned. Um, you know, I guess we'll see again, being the dad of a four year old and four years of experience in, I guess we'll see in a few years if what I'm doing right now stuck.
00:04:07
Speaker
Um, but I think the, the biggest lesson that I have learned is 100% to, really nurture my relationship with the Lord. um Something that I have found time and again, i don't know if trial and error is the best way to put it, but cause and effect might be a better ah better way to put it, is that I notice the moments that I'm the most harsh with my children or lacking, or I can see that I'm lacking the most or the times that I'm also neglecting my my my quiet time with the Lord.
00:04:39
Speaker
And so I have absolutely seen a cause and effect in the way that I parent, the way that I um communicate with my wife. And um so methodology, you know, aside, I think, I think the way that I prioritize my relationship with the Lord has been probably the most crucial aspect to my parenting.
00:05:05
Speaker
Awesome.
Balancing Discipline and Friendship with Children
00:05:06
Speaker
You know, I, um
00:05:09
Speaker
ah I've always felt like, you know, pouring myself into my children, I have to be filled up too. And so, you know, that's your, your right on track there as far as we can't pour anything out of us unless we've been filled.
00:05:27
Speaker
And so if we keep trying to pour out, eventually we're going to run dry. Yeah. If we don't go back to the well of living water and be filled ourselves, you know, when, when we're running dry, that's when we do things wrong.
00:05:40
Speaker
Sure. So, that's That's, honestly, that's like, great episode, guys. That was wonderful. to sp on that a little bit to expound on that a little bit as well, I feel like, at least in our culture, when I watch podcasts, and not to dog podcasts at all, I love ah i eat up content all day long.
00:06:04
Speaker
um Just but the nature of what I do for a living it allows me time to listen to stuff while I work. and um There's a lot of parenting podcasts that have to do with discipline and discipline is absolutely important, but there's not a lot on cultivating friendship with your children and cultivating a good relationship ah aside from the disciplinary stuff.
00:06:23
Speaker
oh And so when it comes to discipline, you know, i have found, think my wife has found this as well to, you know, timeouts are, are great because it it can be a lesson for the kid, but more than anything, it's a moment for you to take a breath, calm down, pray, think about the conversational teaching aspect of this.
00:06:42
Speaker
and not just you know laying down the law of discipline. And that makes the conversation that happens afterwards much more pleasing for both the parent and child.
00:06:53
Speaker
And i think a greater lesson is learned, and it also, again, cultivates the the relationship that you have with your kid. um So food for thought. I think you are hitting on something there that is significantly larger than it may seem on the surface. Because just thinking of it as a from the perspective, I grew up as a preacher's kid.
00:07:15
Speaker
My dad was very tightly knit to his ministry and gave his heart and soul and blood and everything he could and into trying to move the church that he was a part of. And the, like what you're saying, Nate, it seemed like, you know, there was a, there was a sharpness for sure that arose in direct correlation with his spiritual weariness.
00:07:37
Speaker
And that wasn't a thing he could hide at all. I mean, that's something that, Most men um don't or have that capacity to do. Weariness makes makes cowards of us all. But the the end of the day, like he he he was not a bad man.
00:07:54
Speaker
and He was not you know looking to try to harm anybody in our in our family or to to you know overly burden some us or to break any relationships. But yeah, he did.
00:08:05
Speaker
um There were a lot. And I know this is not an uncommon story, especially with where ministry kids. where, especially from the fathers, there's this fear that, you know, Satan has this malicious, distinct target on your kids, which is an accurate assessment of the world you live in.
00:08:22
Speaker
And because of that, you have to be so vigilant and ever-present all the time that you you're there and you you want to put up the vanguard, you want to be the wall. But over time, as you grow weary, you lose the discernment and the energy that is required to be a student of the people you're trying to guard and shepherd.
00:08:42
Speaker
And you can revert easily to the quick, harsh judgments. And the just do what I say, just this, you stop questioning, whatever. And that's I think that's a pain point that you're you're really addressing in what you're talking about there that's critical, that that being regenerated, being refilled, being renewed is the best bulwark you have.
00:09:04
Speaker
Right. Where... the the spiritual disciplines that you're trying to pass on to your children don't then turn into a weapon against you because you're so connected to the mission that you lose the heart of the connection.
00:09:15
Speaker
And that's the, I think that's a ah very big one that that you cannot successfully incorporate godly discipline into your children if they're not feeling God's love through you in the way that you're applying that discipline.
00:09:29
Speaker
And if that love has evaporated from you because you're you're spent, um The things that you've been doing in this world that are all good things, you know being a provider, being present in your ministry, you're trying to love your wife, you know, the the things that are that take energy and focus, that you're not an endless pit of energy and you're not an endless pit of that abundance.
00:09:49
Speaker
And if you don't have those recesses to be able to reset, refocus and re, you know, re energize with the Lord and with the Holy Spirit's guidance and and input into your heart where you're not expected to just dispel.
00:10:04
Speaker
great wisdom and discernment at all times. You're there to be vulnerable, to confess, to be self-reflective, um, and, and just to be poured into that's, that's a necessary aspect of of any ministry to go well, much less the most important ministry of all of leading your family.
Letting God Work Through Parenting
00:10:22
Speaker
Right. So that's the, that's a big, that's not a small thing. very very important You know, we were talking about this actually yesterday.
00:10:35
Speaker
we Basically, long story short, um thinking about the the the way that we we want to do good things, but we do them in the flesh instead of in the spirit. Right, right. And how important it is that we get the flesh out of there and we do it in the power the spirit. And this applies to parenting,
00:10:55
Speaker
to um it applies to any good thing that we want to do in the world. you know, and, and really, and I'll just share this from my own life. This is one of the most significant. It's really interesting how this leads together.
00:11:07
Speaker
One of the most significant lessons that I've ever learned in the area of parenting or fathering is when I was in college and I was thinking I wasn't a father yet, um, which maybe this doesn't count, but, um, I was, I was praying and meditating and talking to the Lord and, um,
00:11:30
Speaker
I just was kind of overwhelmed with the idea of being a dad. How could I possibly? And I mean, I saw my the blackness of my own heart, the the evil that's down in there and just how weak I was and and what a coward I was.
00:11:45
Speaker
And ah just thought, Lord, how could I ever take on the responsibility of shaping a young person's life, ah take a child and shape it into something that's worthwhile or meaningful in the world?
00:12:00
Speaker
And I just felt the Lord say to me, how can you do anything good apart from me? He said, i have to parent through you just like I have to parent, I have to do anything through you.
00:12:13
Speaker
you want to be You want to do anything in the world? You want to you know have a ah ministry to people in need? You want to preach the gospel? You want to you know do anything at all?
00:12:24
Speaker
I've got to be the one that does it through you. And that goes to your fatherhood journey as well. You've got to let me do it. And I love your kids more than you do. And that really struck home to me that God loves my children more than me.
00:12:39
Speaker
And he's stronger than me. He's wiser than me and to allow him to be the one that really does the parenting. Right. I like you're saying, Nate, I have to be connected to the source that to really work.
00:12:51
Speaker
But that to me was really a profound thing that God impressed upon my heart. And yeah I really think that it's important that i have to keep reminding myself of that that i screw this thing up if i do it on my own in my flesh but if i allow the spirit to flow through me and if i allow the the lord to be fathering my kids through this broken vessel then things go a whole lot better in in my family and the damage that i would do to them in my flesh is diminished and the benefit
00:13:28
Speaker
that I can bring to them is increased. The fruits of the spirit, the fruits of the spirit grow. I don't want the fruit of the flesh, but the fruit of the spirit is a good thing.
00:13:40
Speaker
Mr. Matt Stewart, you've been a rather come contemplative, contemplative. I'm not sure what the right word is, but why don't you share with us a little bit about um the lessons you have learned as a father and in your life or one of the big ones.
00:13:58
Speaker
Yeah, so I've got two. One is is kind of kind of silly, but um but practical and
Practical Parenting Tips from Matt
00:14:06
Speaker
good. And you I think I'll get some amens from it.
00:14:09
Speaker
um
00:14:11
Speaker
and This is for newer parents. When you have a baby, first several weeks, several months, let the baby sleep.
00:14:23
Speaker
Don't wake the baby up every two hours. We did it for the first baby. I'm sure y'all did it for the first baby, but let the baby sleep as long as he or she wants. When she, when she's hungry, she'll let you know.
00:14:36
Speaker
Y'all agree with that? God created sleep cycles and hunger cues for a reason. Right. and And if you try the thing where, well, let's just keep them up a lot later tonight. So they'll sleep longer. That usually doesn't work either.
00:14:48
Speaker
Usually they're just cranky and won't go to sleep. So left it and left it let the baby sleep. Amen. Um, But now onto something a little bit more important than that. like That's a big one there. Before you move on, you've got to help me.
00:14:59
Speaker
and I don't even know step one here, man. Like, how do you get it to sleep? there's the
00:15:07
Speaker
Well, I don't know what to do. Just feed the baby. and when that's why That's the mother the mother knows. Mom knows when to put them down. She's but you just got that instinct. Okay, well, our kid doesn't have that instinct because even naptime spray doesn't seem to be putting the child down.
00:15:24
Speaker
she She might blink, you know, really long for 15 seconds or so, but then she's right at it again. So I have no idea what her sleep cycle is. I don't think she has one.
00:15:36
Speaker
But the anyway, well we can – have to look at your notes a little later on that one because it's – Yeah. Yeah. she then She's got significantly more hours of the day than she's asleep.
00:15:48
Speaker
but Yeah. Yeah. And happy and bouncing around and energetic and learning about the world and singing and beating up her siblings and all kinds of stuff. 18 months. Yeah.
00:15:59
Speaker
I'm talking about, yeah, the first several months at night, you know, but anyway, naps are still hard. I don't remember those. Three and four and five-year-olds are still hard. um Another thing I wanted to say is probably...
00:16:12
Speaker
10 years ago, i was in the car of my dad and I said, what do you, um, is there anything you regret, you regret, uh, from as a parent or wish you would have changed, done differently or whatever.
00:16:22
Speaker
And he said that, um, he's like, I always wish I would have spent more time with you and, and my sister as well. And I, and I said to him, like, well, I felt like you did spend a lot of time with us. And he's like, there's so many times I could have, and I didn't, um,
00:16:38
Speaker
And so, you know, I've thought about that and and um and thankfully I've got a wife who's always like, hey, make sure you include the kids here and make sure that make sure they do this with you. You know, and I think as a younger parent as well, you still have your hobbies and you want to you want to go do this and do that and the kids kind of get in your way a little bit.
00:16:57
Speaker
um You may think that, but in my 13 years of being a being a dad, I realized that most of the things that I enjoy doing, um I can include the kids.
00:17:10
Speaker
Now I may have to tweak it a little bit. um Maybe I take one kid fishing at a time instead of all five or, you know, ah playing games. You know, we we play games all the time and I teach them how to play spades and rummy and poker. And by the time they're six years old, we're playing poker. You know, like it's, it's, we can just teach them and I can do things with them. You know, we can, as a parent,
00:17:34
Speaker
As a dad, I can still have fun with my kids doing what I want to do. um Yeah, when because they're they're gambling with all the neighborhood kids and you're taking a piece of the profit. So, you know, hey, that's a lot of fun.
00:17:48
Speaker
I keep all the profit. That's all mine. So we don't, yeah, we we just play for fun. So, and just one other thing too, you kind of have to tweak, you have to tweak things a little bit. Like, so I'm used to, when I deer hunt, I usually sit in a tree stand up high where um they can't see me or whatever. But this past season I had four, four of my five kids and a blind with me, a two, a four person or six person blind.
00:18:14
Speaker
And we killed a big six point. So it's like, you know, we can still, we can still do things with them that we enjoy doing. That's, that's the main point. Um, ah a few other will think like we can, um,
00:18:28
Speaker
When you go to the grocery store, take them with you. When you go early, i have to go serve at church early. I take them with me. I try to, whatever I do, I just try to include them. And it's been it' been great. I've enjoyed every minute of it.
00:18:40
Speaker
And I ah think you can't go wrong with spending too much, spending a lot of time with your kids.
00:18:47
Speaker
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Spending Time with Children and Marriage Balance
00:20:26
Speaker
You know, a heard a a man oh what was his name steve farrar he's an author he wrote a great book called point man um where he compared being a father to being the uh the point man in a uh combat unit in vietnam uh anyway i recommend the book steve far is a great author but he i heard him say one time he said um fatherhood is like bowling uh your errors
00:20:59
Speaker
decrease the closer you are your target. He said, basically, did you know I'm 300 bowler? Yep. Every time strike every single time I'm 300 average, but you don't know that I'm only five feet away from the pins. When I bowl, they said your errors will decrease your errors increase with distance further. You get away from those pins. The farther away you are, the easier it is to make mistakes.
00:21:24
Speaker
So he said, the closer you are to your kids, the more time you spend with them, the, the the less fewer mistakes you will make. always thought that was great advice. have a question.
00:21:35
Speaker
yeah good point Just to get all of y'all's perspective on this, I'm still kind of thinking how to articulate the question. oh I listen to a lot of John Lovell and there's a phrase he uses a lot and he calls it a beautiful tension.
00:21:46
Speaker
He uses that about a lot of things. you know There's a beautiful tension between how a mother would parent and how a father would parent. and so you know It's not that they're you know they complement each other, but in in the regard of spending time with your children and taking them along, because I i believe wholehearted wholeheartedly that's a great thing.
00:22:03
Speaker
oh There's a big conversation right now that I've heard a lot about not putting your children above your marriage and not forsaking the relationship with our wives um because eventually kids will grow up and they'll move out.
00:22:17
Speaker
And you know what what you have then is you know once you're an empty nest, you have time with your wife. And if that relationship has suffered, we see sadly what, you know, how that, how that ends. And so I'm curious, you know, it more so just to get y'all's perspective on this, y'all are farther down the road than I am, because, you know, it's fantastic to include your kids and all this stuff, but, you know, also don't feel like I would, I don't feel like I would regret, you know, sending them off to their grandparents to get a weekend with my wife, you know? So is that, you know, like what's definitely don't bring them with you on your anniversary date. Sure. Yeah. It's it's not going to help anybody anywhere.
00:22:57
Speaker
Yeah. and Perhaps I'm overthinking it, you know, make, make, but you know, what what, what are y'all's perspective on that? Well, I think they're, I mean, I think they're different. mean You've got times you want to spend with your wife, you need to spend with her. And there's times where, when you're just going to do whatever out in the yard on a Saturday, just get the kids to tag along.
00:23:15
Speaker
My wife doesn't want to go out and help me in the garden, but right but I make the kids. sure um Yeah. She could care less about that. So just, yeah, you do both. yeah I think there's theres kind of this this old adage. I heard this a lot from some mentors I really trusted a lot when I was younger.
00:23:33
Speaker
that you know Kids don't need quantity time. They need quality time. okay Which is a really stupid saying. So don't don't follow that advice at all. Because you don't get to schedule quality time.
00:23:46
Speaker
Quality time doesn't show up just because you designated this next 30 minutes to really peer into my son's soul time. sometimes it's going to take you 30 minutes just for him to realize that you're in the room.
00:23:58
Speaker
the The quality time it' something that you ought to pray for and you ought to seek for and you ought try to prod for, but we don't get to pick when it happens. and doesn't You don't get to pick when it happens with your wife either.
00:24:11
Speaker
the The quality time piece is extraordinarily important. And just because you scheduled a date for this time and the parents are going to watch the kids or whatever, doesn't mean you're going to spend the next three hours intimately catching up on where everything was.
00:24:25
Speaker
You're gonna show up at that table having slept four hours that week and your capacity to be able to reach into your soul and give something your wife is gonna be strained. Sometimes those things just don't work out exactly the way that you planned on it.
00:24:38
Speaker
So you plan again and you plan again, you attack the beachhead until you win. it's not um It's not one of those things where you get to necessarily have a guidebook on, you know, follow this schedule,
00:24:52
Speaker
put this correct amount of balance and then do this and all things are going to work out. There's going to be times when you and your wife are, you know, so close fighting back to back in that trench.
00:25:02
Speaker
You're not going to need another two hours the next day to catch up, to be able to hold onto that camaraderie, but your son, you're losing his heart. He's closer to Pokemon now than he is to your vision for his life. And that's, that happens. And that's this part of the continuous discernment that we're looking for, especially as the leaders of our homes to try to figure out how to fight that battle.
00:25:22
Speaker
The targets move and they don't move in a fair way most of the time. But i would I would suggest that the ah the the concept there, like what you're talking about with that beautiful tension, the you need you have to shore up your battle buddy first.
00:25:39
Speaker
if you If you're right with your kids, but you're wrong with your wife, you're going to lose your family. You've got to be right with your battle buddy. She's in the trench with you. And once you guys are good, then you can approach the battlefield, which is your kids.
00:25:51
Speaker
Unfortunately, at this moment in life, you are contending over them with a fierce enemy. So if you if you're doing that with um the strength of your best friend and the person who knows your heart and knows how to defend you, you're going to be way more successful than if you're trying to hold up everything all at once, because you're just going to lose both sides.
Joys and Challenges of Fatherhood
00:26:11
Speaker
Hey, I I got two things to say about this.
00:26:16
Speaker
ah Well, I should, I should save one of them. But the, the, the main thing I wanted to say is that somebody gave Anna and i some great advice. It was some great marital advice.
00:26:31
Speaker
And it was, you should have a five second kiss every day. And so we have tried to practice that. And I mean, you know, sometimes a five second kiss turns into a 50 second kiss. And that's,
00:26:47
Speaker
That's great. And that turns into a 50 minute kiss sometimes. And that's even better. But the point is that we take the time to say, Hey, I didn't get my five seconds. Or she'll say, she'll come chase me down. Sometimes she'll say time for five seconds. This is coming from the man with eight kids.
00:27:07
Speaker
You can't argue with results, bro. um But I'm saying that that, That forces us to deal with issues because can't sit there and kiss her for five seconds if I am mad at her or if she's mad at me.
00:27:25
Speaker
And so we then like it forces us to deal with things that we need to deal with. We try to never go to bed angry with each other. But, you know, that that has been good advice. It's funny. I'm not going argue with the advice.
00:27:40
Speaker
yeah but Nate, you're totally right. We do need to have a solid relationship with our wives because that creates a better ability to be good dads to our kids.
00:27:56
Speaker
And you know what? There may be dads out there that are listening to this that are not married. They're either in a broken family or, you know, whatever situations developed in their life that they're not,
00:28:10
Speaker
in a relationship with the mother of their children. And you can still have um, ah positive fatherhood journey in that circumstance.
00:28:22
Speaker
And you might not be able to be as intimate with the mother of your children one point, but you can still have a good relationship with her because you are their father and she is their mother and you've got to work together.
00:28:38
Speaker
to bring those children up in the nurture and admonition of the Lord. Even if you're you're divorced and you're remarried and things are not gonna go forward that way, you still have to be able to have a good relationship that is based upon mutual respect and trust so that you can double team these kids because there is there's a real need for fathers and for mothers.
00:29:02
Speaker
Both are important in a child's life. So I don't want us to forget that there may be somebody out there listening to this that is not living with the mother of their children and they need to make sure that they still have a positive, healthy relationship with the mother of their children.
00:29:21
Speaker
Well, guys, I mean, that's about it. tony makes Tony, I think, Tony, did you share the the the best fatherhood lesson of your life?
00:29:34
Speaker
Uh... in and part it was kind of in in conjunction there with but Matt and was just thinking about the ah quality time, quantity time piece.
00:29:46
Speaker
I know it's different than what I was kind of imagining earlier today, but that one's something that stuck out to me and we've seemed quite in tune with the theme of the night. But just as an addition to that one, I guess i I don't have any idea how to articulate this in the proper way.
00:30:01
Speaker
So you might have to edit all of this out altogether, but the, uh, the thought of being the keeper and the standard of the watch is something, there's a lot of things from my dad that I took away. Don't ever do that. I'm i'm never going to be like that.
00:30:16
Speaker
This is not, it but that is one of those things where it's like, I don't know if I've ever seen a man in my life do it better.
Fathers as Protectors
00:30:21
Speaker
The, his application may not have always been right, but man, his heart to want to vigilantly stand guard over his family, to own them, to make sure that his,
00:30:33
Speaker
He was a sheepdog. He was going to hunt down and eviscerate anything that he saw as a threat that would come for our hearts. There's a fierceness in that that I think, for some reason, is just not that ubiquitous with modern evangelical men.
00:30:51
Speaker
It seems like there's a ah mass neutering and that has gone on where everybody has to be nice all the time to everybody about everything, 100% of the time.
00:31:03
Speaker
No matter how evil or corruptive or corrosive or corrupt they're going to be towards your family. Like it's, you hear instances and stuff in the news every now and then of, you know, so some sports program is going on, like girls track meet or whatever, and there's some fella hanging out with them in the bathroom. Like, if that ever happened to one of my sisters, you never find the body.
00:31:31
Speaker
History. capacity to rise to the threat would would have overcome the threat. And i I had seen my dad stand up and in not you know to be physically violent against anybody, but to never let the threat of physical violence deter him from standing correctly ah in the way of evil. and And I just find that an absolutely remarkable trait that not enough men get to see and experience and and to be encouraged and and filled with courage from watching a courageous person.
00:32:01
Speaker
stand up on your behalf and and be a shield for you. And us as fathers, we get to do that to not ah not just our daughters, but our sons, our wives. And that inspires their hearts in different types of ways.
00:32:14
Speaker
I want my son to be able to look at the way that I treat you know his sisters and his mom. I think one day I'm gonna be able to be man enough to do that for my family too.
00:32:26
Speaker
And I want my daughters to think, you know what I'm not gonna settle for somebody is not going to put everything in front of me like that one did. I don't have to settle for less than that. And that's, I don't know. i I think at that that trait from my dad is something that I've respected more and more and more and more the darker it seems the world is getting around my kids. It's something that I i really ah greatly admire about him.
00:32:52
Speaker
Awesome.
00:32:55
Speaker
You know I think that a lot of dads out there have been conditioned to be embarrassed by their manliness and i think that they need we need to always remember it's okay to be manly it's okay to be masculine and in a godly way i mean the bible says um quit you like men that's the king james and it means behave like a man yeah and paul is exhorting uh the people in in corinth
00:33:28
Speaker
He says this in Corinthians, quit you like men. Man up is basically what he's saying. Man up, you know, be a man. It's not wrong to be a man. It's not wrong to be masculine.
00:33:41
Speaker
And our society has, you know, conditioned even many, many Christians to just be, you know, so docile that they're not a threat anymore.
00:33:51
Speaker
And, you know, we need men that are a threat, not a threat to good, righteous, godly things. not a threat to any woman or you know any any helpless innocent, but a threat to evil and a threat to wickedness, a threat to things that want to snatch and kill and destroy our yeah our families and our society, our churches.
00:34:19
Speaker
We need men who are able to be threatening. And I and i appreciate that. so much you guys because I feel like you are strong men but we really need guys to be that way and we need guys to remember to not be ashamed of their manliness and their masculinity so it's good good reminder Tony certainly great stuff um
00:34:46
Speaker
I'll share a something funny here you guys ready for a joke let's do it yep um oh there's a lot of good good ones in here that for is that jokes for like six-year-olds book or something no these are jokes for dads
Light-Hearted Dad Jokes and Closing Remarks
00:35:07
Speaker
oh okay uh my wife say what i'm already less encouraged that you had to research and read this one i was hoping for like a generational chunk of wisdom i mean i got a couple that are like you know in the hope they're ready to go do you know who made king arthur's round table
00:35:26
Speaker
It was circumference. No question about it. That's good. That's great. Okay, this one's better. My wife just accused me of having zero empathy.
00:35:38
Speaker
I don't understand why she feels that way.
00:35:42
Speaker
That one's better. yeah The man who invented autocorrect has died. His funfair is on sundial at moon.
00:35:53
Speaker
Okay.
00:35:56
Speaker
All right. Well, that's that's good stuff, guys. I appreciate all of you and ah your perspectives on fatherhood. And I hope that you that if anyone out there listening to us, all all seven or eight of them, I think maybe we got to nine this week, um are encouraged to to be manly and to remember the lessons of fatherhood that God has taught you. So, all right.
00:36:22
Speaker
That's all the time we have tonight. So we will catch up with you guys next time. And God bless you. hope to see you again soon. Bye-bye. Bye. See you.