Becoming A Connected Father – Day 3

It’s interesting to start my day with the thought of how to make the most of today and that today’s topic in this devotional happens to be on time management. It’s always so interesting to get to read one of the devotionals from Manhood Journey and how they speak to men and especially dads. 

As I consider the reality of the importance of being the dad God created me to be for my wife’s sake, my kids’ sake, and this world’s sake, living life as Jesus purposed to the full, more abundantly, and without regrets comes to mind. God created us for relationships! God created us to be in a relationship with Him, God created us to be in a relationship with our wives, God created us to be in a relationship with our kids, and God created us to be in a relationship with others! So let’s be the dads who choose to live connected lives so that by being connected with God we can allow God’s love, plan, and purpose to flow into us and through us into the lives of our wives, our kids, and our world!

So with my usual search for the word “dad” and scrolling through a couple of pages, today’s devotional is going to be “Becoming A Connected Father” from Manhood Journey!

Scripture from Today’s Devotional:

‘ THEREFORE, [there is] now no condemnation (no adjudging guilty of wrong) for those who are in Christ Jesus, who live [and] walk not after the dictates of the flesh, but after the dictates of the Spirit. [John 3:18.] For the law of the Spirit of life [which is] in Christ Jesus [the law of our new being] has freed me from the law of sin and of death.’

Romans 8:1-2

‘ He who walks [as a companion] with wise men is wise, but he who associates with [self-confident] fools is [a fool himself and] shall smart for it. [Isa. 32:6.]’

Proverbs 13:20

God’s Word is so amazing and His timing is perfect. That on the day I am thinking about how to spend and make the most out of Labor Day, the subject would be on prioritizing time is just how God works.

Let’s be the dads who aren’t walking around carrying guilt or shame but rather have received and accepted Jesus into our lives and broken free from that and choose to live our lives condemnation free! Let’s be the dads who choose to walk out our lives in alignment with the Holy Spirit’s leading, guiding, comfort, and peace rather than falling into the traps of the temptations of the flesh! Let’s be the dads who receive Jesus and the true freedom that comes from and through it because we know that the law of the Spirit of life which is in Christ Jesus the law of our new being has freed us from the law of sin and of death! Let’s be the dads who choose to surround ourselves and walk out our lives with wise men! Let’s be the dads who avoid spending too much time and getting influenced by men who are self-confident fools! Let’s be the dads who choose to hangout with people help us to make good decisions and live lives that will glorify God! Let’s be the dads who avoid getting dragged into the troubles and temptations of the fools who are so prideful and foolish to think they can outsmart God and others! Let’s be the dads who choose to invite the Holy Spirit into every conversation, situations, and activity so that He is able to lead us and guide us into all righteousness!

Today’s devotional has been provided by UNCOMMEN.

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)

This reading plan is a summary of many of the things taught in the full digital course called The Connected Father filled with videos,   podcasts and downloadable tips and tools. 

Manhood Journey is a ministry who helps dads become disciple makers. We do this through various tools: blogs, eBooks, Field Guides, Bible studies, digital courses and live events.

Becoming a Connected Father

For more information, please visit https://www.manhoodjourney.org/connectedfather.

Takeaways from Today’s Devotionals:
“Day 3: Leadership Strategy 2“

• Leadership Strategy 2: Prioritize Time
• Let’s be the dads who prioritize our time to spend it in the most valuable and rewarding ways possible!
• Let’s be the dads who prioritize our time in alignment with our priorities of God, Wives, Kids, and then everything else!
• Today’s devotional starts off with a verse for us to consider and meditate:
  • ““For we are God’s handiwork, created in Christ Jesus to do good works, which God prepared in advance for us to do.” Ephesians 2:10 (NIV)“
• Did you catch that? We need to prioritize our time to be able to accomplish the good works which God prepared in advance for us to do!
• Let’s be the dads who prioritize our time to be able to accomplish the good works which God prepared in advance for us to do!
• Let’s be the dads who realize God created us with a mission to accomplish good works!
• Let’s be the dads who look to avoid the zillion things that will conspire to get us off our mission!
• Let’s be the dads who purpose and plan so that we can get the good works accomplish without being distracted or derailed by devil’s plans and temptations!
• Let’s be the dads who know and understand this mission God has for us to accomplish!
• Today’s devotional shares something they do to help with this mission, I adjusted to make it more general for all of us but consider personalizing it with your wife’s name and your kid(s)’ names:
  • “Love God”
  • “Serve our wives”
  • “Disciple our kids”
  • “Bless Others”
• Let’s be the dads who create a mission-filter that captures the basics!
• Let’s be the dads who use this mission-filter to help us in prioritizing our time and efforts!
• Today’s devotional gives us advice on prioritization of our time when it shares:
  • “The main way I prioritize my time, is through this filter. Every time I say “Yes” to one thing, I’m saying “No” to another. I’ve learned how to say “No” to things that are outside my mission.
    
    We only have so many hours in the day, so we must make the most of our time – in some cases, this means we should trade pleasures for purpose.“
• Let’s be the dads who choose to live our lives on purpose, with purpose, and for God’s purpose!
• Let’s be the dads who are able to prioritize what we do in alignment to God’s mission for our lives which may require change or adjustments to how and what we choose to do, including hobbies!
• I know people have asked me what I do in my free time or what sports I like most and my answer tends to surprise them when I say – whatever sport my kids are doing or being with my family.
• I know people have asked me when the last time I went on a vacation was and I share how I’ve travelled with my kids to watch them play sports, I run a summer camp for foster teens, I visit family and then they reply how that doesn’t count. It counts for me!
• Let’s be the dads who include our kids in “leisure” time, like how my son and I have gotten a gym membership, and even though his friend is there and they now workout together, it provides me with dedicated 1 on 1 time as we commute back and forth together!
• Let’s be the dads who are willing to dig deeper if or when we start to feel out of balance!
• Let’s be the dads who aren’t attacking people but are looking for the underlying issue and then putting that problem on the table and attacking it!
• Let’s be the dads who are focused on clarity of purpose rather than trying to make sure everyone gets equal time or balance of time or even more time!
• Today’s devotional speaks to this with a quote from “Gary Keller, in his interesting book The One Thing“:
  • “In your effort to attend to all things, everything gets shortchanged and nothing gets its due.”
• Today’s devotional shares a personal story from their life:
  • “One day, I realized I’d been hard on my teenage son for several weeks in a row. I was really “in his face” a lot, and not often in a kind fashion. I felt the need to apologize and to encourage him. I asked him to meet me at Starbucks.
    
    For over an hour we talked about life, respect, maturity – it was super. You know what I wasn’t doing during that time? Everything else. Right then, he mattered the most.
    
    Of my five kids, within the context of my marriage, ministry work, and everything else in my life, my relationship with that one son mattered the most for those 90 minutes.
    
    I didn’t worry about what I “wasn’t getting done,” because right then, I was 100% certain that I was doing the most important thing with my time. That’s completely “imbalanced,” but perfectly content.
    
    Don’t strive for “balance” – instead, get comfortable with always being in the “un-balancing act” of life. We are always intentionally trading off one task for the other, knowing at any given moment, only one can command our undivided attention.“
• So let’s be the dads who pick up this advice and the challenge related to prioritizing our time today:
  • “If you want to be a Connected Dad, learn how to prioritize your time by filtering every activity through the personal mission God’s given you.“