As we get to day 7, a week has gone by, God’s plan and desire for us aren’t to give us a spirit of timidity or cowardice or fear but rather He has given us a spirit of power and of love and of sound judgment and personal discipline with abilities that result in a calm, well-balanced mind and self-control! So as we finish up the week, knowing tomorrow will close out the devotional, let’s lean in on God and the Spirit so that we can finish strong! Let’s choose to receive the spirit of power and live it! Let’s choose to receive the spirit of sound judgment! Let’s choose to receive the spirit of personal discipline! Let’s choose to live in it, walking out today with God in order to finish the good works He has prepared in advance for us to accomplish!
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!
Today’s Scriptures from the Devotional:
‘ Come now, and let us reason together, says the Lord. Though your sins are like scarlet, they shall be as white as snow; though they are red like crimson, they shall be like wool.’
Isaiah 1:18
‘ Not so shall it be among you; but whoever wishes to be great among you must be your servant, And whoever desires to be first among you must be your slave– Just as the Son of Man came not to be waited on but to serve, and to give His life as a ransom for many [the price paid to set them free].’
Matthew 20:26-28
God’s Word is so key to helping us become who God created us to be! God’s Word is so important to help us make the right decisions to be able to live our lives to the full! God’s Word can speak to us right where we are at, right here, right now, today!
Let’s be the dads who receive Jesus as our Lord and Savior, who was foretold to be coming to cleanse us from all unrighteousness! Let’s be the dads who choose to receive and walk out our lives with Jesus in order to hear His instructions through the Holy Spirit! Let’s be the dads who are living our lives to serve our wives! Let’s be the dads who are living our lives to serve our kids! Let’s be the dads who are living our lives as servant leaders so that others may also come to know Jesus and be able to live their lives in accordance with God’s plan of hope and a future and so they can receive Jesus’ purpose for coming that we can live this life to the full! Let’s be the dads who choose to live our lives as living sacrifices to God! Let’s be the dads who live our lives with the freedom Jesus paid for and gives us today!
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.
Becoming a Connected Father
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.
For more information, please visit https://www.manhoodjourney.org/connectedfather.
Takeaways from Today’s Devotionals:
“Day 7 Training Strategy #2“
- Training Strategy #2: Engage Hearts
- Today’s devotional gets started with a verse from Hebrews 4:12
- Let’s be the dads who are more interested in our kids’ character than their behaviors!
- Let’s be the dads who are focused on helping our kids build good character rather than trying to control their behaviors!
- Let’s be the dads who remember what God’s Word says about the overflow of the heart and how the heart is what will really impact the behaviors!
- “A good man brings good things out of the good stored up in his heart, and an evil man brings evil things out of the evil stored up in his heart. For the mouth speaks what the heart is full of.” — Luke 6:45
- “But the things that come out of a person’s mouth come from the heart, and these defile them.” — Matthew 15:18
- Today’s devotional shares a book reference and quote:
- Let’s be the dads who check our own hearts and our own intentions for how we address, correct, and train our kids!
- Today’s devotional reflects back on yesterday’s topic of disrespecting the mother and shares the following interesting and intriguing questions:
- Let’s be the dads who realize that our “job is not just to produce obedient children – that’s foundational – but our job is much more like a rabbi than a police warden“!
- Let’s be the dads who realize that our job in the home is “supposed to be the chief disciple maker“!
- Let’s be the dads who “need to help our children to love what God loves, and to hate what God hates“!
- Let’s be the dads who look for teachable moments when our kids need them!
- Today’s devotional shares the following example of one of those teachable moments:
- “Just recently, I was talking with one of my teen sons about his anger. I told him that he’ll know he’s fully mature when the things that anger him are those things that anger God, and nothing else.“
- “This means that sometimes he’ll have to do extra chores because his brother’s working a job. That shouldn’t make him angry.“
- Today’s devotional calls us to be the dads who are the chief disciple makers in our homes and how it is our job, not someone else’s!
- Today’s devotional closes with the following challenge:
