10 Challenges Every Dad Must Conquer – Day 4

The Bible.com (or Bible App from YouVersion) has so many great plans to go through and read. As I continue through the list of dad devotionals using their search capabilities, I have come across today’s devotional which is a 12-day devotional titled 10 Challenges Every Dad Must Conquer. Checking out the publisher’s information and signing up for their newsletters as well as getting to download their survival gear, I am excited to get better connected with them as I believe they have many resources that will be helpful and useful for men who answer the call to step up and step into being the dads God has called and created them to be. Looking into this devotional and trying to better understand the purpose of Manhood Journey, I discovered they are “a ministry who helps dads become disciple-makers. We do this through various tools. Things like blogs, eBooks, Field Guides, Bible studies, digital courses, and live events“. I am so excited to get to go through this devotional with all of you and see where God will take us. I am excited to have gotten to communicate with Kent and to have found their resources as I believe it will be of great help to dads.

The Bible.com site describes this plan as follows:

“Feel overwhelmed—or worse—like a failure? We took your most-pressing challenges and matched them up with battle-proven, busy leaders who also happen to be dads—to give you theologically deep and super-practical help. You CAN be the dad God calls you to be. This plan will help.”

10 Challenges Every Dad Must Conquer

Today’s devotional points us to Ephesians 6:4.

‘Fathers, do not exasperate your children; instead, bring them up in the training and instruction of the Lord. ‘

Ephesians 6:4

Today’s verse is so important when it comes for us to be the dads God wants us to be. It speaks to the dos and don’ts. It provides us with an “instead of … do this”. Remember from a few days back in another devotional when we looked at this verse and considered what it means? Let’s be the dads who don’t “irritate and frustrate (someone) intensely“ our kids but instead love them and help them through training and instruction of the Lord. Let’s be the dads who don’t infuriate, incense, anger, annoy, irritate, madden, enrage, send into a rage, inflame, antagonize, provoke, irk, vex, gall, pique, try someone’s patience, get on someone’s nerves, make someone’s blood boil, make someone’s hackles rise, make someone see red, get someone’s back up, rub up the wrong way, ruffle someone’s feathers, drive to distraction, exacerbate, hump, rasp, infuriating, annoying, irritating, maddening, antagonizing, provoking, irking, irksome, vexing, vexatious, galling, trying, troublesome, bothersome, and displeasing our kids but instead leading by example, teach and train them in the ways they should go and should live, building a relationship and trusting God through it all. Let’s be the dads who love our kids so much that we let them see us leaning in, spending time, and praying to God. Let’s be the dads who love our kids so much that we allow them to see us making time to be with God and hear from Him. Let’s be the dads who love our kids so much that we bring God into our situations with them. Let’s be the dads who love our kids so much that we show them how to hear from God in His Word. Let’s be the dads who love our kids so much that we teach them how to pray and speak with God as well as to pause and listen in order to hear from God. Let’s be the dads who love our kids so much that we tell them about our experiences with God and what God has done in and through those experiences.

Today’s devotional has been provided by Manhood Journey (more details can be found https://www.manhoodjourney.org/fieldguides/)

Reading through today’s devotional, here are some takeaways for me:
(check out the devotional on your own too to see if you pick up other nuggets, and please share your findings in the comments)

For more information, please visit Manhood Journey: https://www.manhoodjourney.org/fieldguides/.

Day 4 You feel distant from your child.

• Recently while on the topic of THRIVE using the book of Exodus as the teaching instrument, Pastor Josh gave us 3 keys related to picking our battles in order to THRIVE:
  1. We need to fight the fight of trust. Trusting that God is good even when our circumstances are not.
  2. We need to fight the fight of perseverance. We need to keep going and not give up. We need to elevate the power and the authority of God. We need to stick closer to God so that we can’t be isolated and tricked by the devil to quit.
  3. We need to fight the fight of unity. We need to be moving forward in unity at the speed of health. Unity requires a leader you can trust. Unity requires we fight the fight daily as there is an opposition who is trying to cause division.
• As we consider today’s verse it speaks to the importance of picking our battles too, as we don’t want to exasperate our kids.
• As we consider today’s verse it speaks to the importance of picking our battles too, as we want to be teaching and training our kids.
• Another translation of Ephesians 6:4 says:
  • “Fathers, do not provoke your children to anger, but bring them up in the discipline and instruction of the Lord.” —Ephesians 6:4.
• It’s an interesting thing when we think about picking our battles and how we don’t want to provide our kids to anger.
• Let’s be the dads who aren’t provoking our kids to anger!
• Let’s be the dads who don’t irritate our kids by finger pointing, fault-finding, and the likes, chipping away at their self-esteem.
• Let’s be the dads who are more interested in building up our kids than tearing them down through disciplining and instructing them in the ways of the Lord.
• Let’s be the dads who are working to build trust with our kids and picking battles that help build and foster that.
• Let’s be the dads who are pressing in on perseverance and helping our kids learn and realize they shouldn’t give up and how great our God is.
• Let’s be the dads who are pressing in on perseverance and helping our kids grab hold of and cling to God’s authority and power.
• Let’s be the dads who help our kids not give up but persevere!
• Let’s be the dads who encourage our kids through unity to keep trying and never give up!
• Let’s be the dads who speak the truth in love to our kids so that they can be built up and persevere!
• Let’s be the dads who speak life into our kids so that they realize how valued they are by us and by God. Press on! Persevere!
• Let’s be the dads who come alongside our kids and help them know they aren’t alone and that if life knocks them down to get back up again.
• Let’s be the dads who are available and present for our kids! If life knocks you down 9 times get up 10.
• Let;s be the dads who choose wisely when to make an issue a battle.
• Let’s be the dads who try to energize our kids rather than tire them out, wear them down, and make them quit.
• Let’s be the dads who pick our battles so that we don’t tire ourselves and our kids out.
• Let’s be the dads who listen to the words and signals of our wives about how we are acting and behaving.
• Let’s be the dads who listen to the wisdom and observations of our wives when it comes to how we pick our battles and when we need to step back.
• Let’s be the dads who don’t try to go it alone but instead surround ourselves with experienced dads who can provide us with insights and wisdom.
• Today’s devotional shares some advice around picking our battles.
  1. Having Perspective
  2. Timing is Everything
• Today’s devotional gives us advice on perspective:
  • In the moment, what is the most important lesson?
  • Once you know that, you need to share it and teach it to your kids.
  • Don’t be distracted by the noise and the clutter.
  • Don’t be bombarding your kids with every lesson under the sun as it will overwhelm them, exasperate them, and provoke them to anger.
  • Let’s be the dads who pick the most important lesson and teach that to our kids so that they can receive and retain it.
  • Let’s be the dads who pick the most important lesson so that our kids receive and reatin the most valuable knowledge they can from the situation.
  • Let’s be the dads who help build up, strengthen, and encourage our kids with the key points so that they can walk out their lives with God and under His power and authority.
  • Are you ready to be the dad who gives their kids what is most important, most valuable, and most impactful?
• Today’s devotional gives us advice on timing:
  • Let’s consider if right now is the right time to deliver the message.
  • Let’s consider if right now they are in a state to be able to receive the message.
  • Let’s consider if right now will support or reinforce the lesson you want to give.
  • If you want to correct a behavior then you probably need to make sure you are doing it in context so it connects.
  • If you want to speak correction or a life lesson then you might want to make sure you are in the right state of mind too.
  • Are you mentally, emotionally, and physically in the right state to be able to deliver the message?
  • Are they mentally, emotionally, and physically in the right state to be able to deliver the message?
  • We need to make sure we don’t blow things out of proportion or context by picking the wrong time.
  • We need to make sure we pick the right place too so that it may be something and somewhere where it is just the two of you.
  • Let’s be the dads who are aware of what is going on so that we can pick the right timing to speak and instruct our kids.
• Today’s devotional leaves us with this question to ponder:
  • “What battles are you currently fighting that you shouldn’t? What battles should you actually pick instead?“