Dad Strong – Day 3

As I get ready for a new devotional for dads, I was excited to find another one from UNCOMMEN titled Dad Strong. It’s incredible getting the opportunity not only to go through devotionals for dad but also to be able to reach out and connect with the various authors or publishers to ensure they are ok with me doing it and building a network of people who I can work with towards helping men Be The Dads they need to be. Today’s devotional comes with the following description from Bible.com and am looking forward to this 5-day devotional series.

Join us as we look at what it means to be Dad Strong. We set expectations, get involved, look at how we speak, talk about boundaries and get ready for the transition. Dad Strong seems to goes hand-in-hand with being Uncommen.

UNCOMMEN – DAD STRONG – BIBLE.COM

Today’s devotional is connected to the verses from God’s Word found in Colossians 4:6:

‘Let your conversation be always full of grace, seasoned with salt, so that you may know how to answer everyone. ‘

Colossians 4:6

Let’s be the dads that lead by example. Let’s be the dads who reflect on God’s Word in order to live godly lives and leave a godly legacy. So when we are in conversation with our kids, our wives, or others in our lives, let’s grab hold of today’s verse as our direction, instruction, and teaching. We are being called to be kind! Remember how we are to live at peace with others, as much as it depends on us, and it always is a choice we have to make. So let’s be kind, being full of grace, not just when it is convenient or the other person is being nice to us, today’s verse tells us we are to do it always. Let’s choose to help preserve relationships, just as salt preserves and keeps food from spoiling. Let’s choose to spice up or ad flavor to our conversations, just like salt changes the flavor of everything we add it to or put it on. Let’s choose to add value when we enter into a conversation, just like salt is a valuable commodity as long as it keeps its saltiness. Let’s be adding value to the conversation by speaking life, hope, love, and encouragement. In making all these choices, we will be able to speak and to answer others in the right way! Let’s choose to respond in a way that will glorify God! Let’s choose to answer with godly wisdom when anyone asks a question.

Today’s devotional has been provided by UNCOMMEN (more details can be found https://www.uncommen.org/).

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)

Words That Echo

• Let’s use today’s verse from God’s Word to teach us and train us in how we should speak to our kids.
• Let your speech always be gracious, seasoned with salt.
  • Let’s be the dads who want to speak to our children with truth and grace!
  • Let’s be the dads who speak to our children with truth and grace so that we can reach them!
  • Let’s be the dads who speak to our kids with truth and grace so that they will be open to listening!
  • Let’s be the dads who avoid yeling, swearing, or lashing out at our kids when we try to them, eroding their trust!
  • Let’s be the dads who we would want to listen to by being the dads who speak graciously!
  • Let’s be the dads who are willing to listen to our kids to show they are valued and so we don’t lose their trust!
  • Let’s be the dads who are willing to make the effort to communicate well with our kids!
  • Let’s be the dads who stand up for our kids and teach them the importance of communication as they are growing up!
  • Let’s be the dads who continuous learn as our kids are growing up, changing, and need us to follow them even when it may feel like a moving target!
• You may know how you ought to answer each person.
  • To know how to answer requires wisdom!
  • To know how to answer each person requires specific wisdom!
  • So let’s invite God into our conversations so that we have His wisdom at hand to be able to answer each person!
  • Let’s make sure we are filled with God’s Word, God’s Spirit, God’s love daily throught reading the Bible and praying!
  • Let’s make sure we are able to adapt to the person we are speaking to as each of our kids are different, our wives are different, and the people in our world are different and so we need to be the dads who can answer each person in a way they can receive!
  • Let’s be the dads who will listen in order to learn how to best communicate!
  • Let’s be the dads who are honest, as we aren’t perfect and so will also need to learn as we grow.
  • Let’s be the dads who can apologize when we get it wrong!
  • Let’s be the dads who can ask for forgiveness when we miss the mark!
  • Let’s be the dads who are more interested in building a relationship with our kids than about being right!
  • Let’s be the dads who are more interested in building a relationship with our kids thru open communication!
• Today’s devotional provides Extra Credit information too:
  • “Extra Credit: You don’t always have to be funny; you don’t have to be the heavy, either. Be consistent and approachable, and your children will thank you for it when they are older.“
• Today’s devotional leaves us with some UNCOMMEN Questions:
  • Do you have excellent communication skills?
  • Do you have a great channel of communication with your children?
• Today’s devotional leaves us with an UNCOMMEN Challenge:
  • Work on your communication with your children. Season it with salt, but also with grace.