Keep an eye on the dashboard lights – Hope for Single Fathers – Day 1 – Self-Care

As I was getting ready to pick a new devotional today, I thought I would pick up a topic I haven’t covered before and yet an important one. It’s a topic that as I continue to move forward I will need to be able to understand and discuss. It’s a topic that is specific and yet important for us all to consider and remember in order to be the dads God has created, purposed, and planned for us to be! We need to keep an eye on the dashboard lights because they can warn us of something taking place under the surface and point us toward the need for self-care!

Today’s devotional is described as follows:

Hope for Single Fathers

3 Days

Finalist for the 2022 Selah Awards, this reading plan addresses how dads can model trust and faith while navigating life’s hectic highway. For single fathers, the challenge increases. Men avoid asking for help because it implies weakness. Roadblocks of independence and pride cause discouragement and hopelessness. Based on the book “The Single Dad Detour” you’ll learn reliance on God and maintain hope to be the protective seatbelt your family needs.

Hope for Single Fathers | Devotional Reading Plan | YouVersion Bible

Scripture from Today’s Devotional:

As we do every day, we turn to God’s Word for wisdom and direction to help us move forward and step up and into what God has purposed, created, and planned for us to be! God’s Word never returns void and so by starting there we are able to be filled up to overflowing with His wisdom and His discernment!

Let’s be the dads who pay attention to God’s Words and are willing to learn! Let’s be the dads who open our ears to hear from God and hear His sayings! Let’s be the dads who lean on God and turn to God so that we don’t allow God’s Word and God’s sayings to escape from our sights! Let’s be the dads who keep God’s Word and God’s sayings in the center of our hearts! Let’s be the dads who choose life by clinging to God’s Word and God’s sayings because we know that they are life to us! Let’s be the dads who choose life by clinging to God’s Word and God’s sayings because they are healing and healthy to our flesh! Let’s be the dads who watch over our hearts with all diligence because we know that from the overflow of our hearts the mouth speaks and can surface warning dashboard lights for us to see! Let’s be the dads who cling to God’s Word and allow it to fill our hearts to overflow because we know that from God’s Word flows the springs of life!

Let’s be the dads who when we see the warning signs on the dashboard lights of our hearts turn to God and cast our cares upon God because He cares for us! Let’s be the dads who when we see the warning signs on the dashboard lights of our hearts turn to God and cast all our anxieties upon God because He cares for us! Let’s be the dads who when we see the warning signs on the dashboard lights of our hearts turn to God and cast all our worries upon God because He cares for us! Let’s be the dads who when we see the warning signs on the dashboard lights of our hearts turn to God and cast all our concerns upon God because He cares for us! Let’s be the dads who cast our care on God because we know that He cares for us with the deepest affection, and watches over us very carefully!

Let’s be the dads who aren’t anxious or worried about anything because when we find ourselves in that situation or position with the warning lights appearing on the dashboard lights choose to pray and petition God instead with thanksgiving making our specific requests known to God! Let’s be the dads who choose to pray and petition God over becoming anxious and worrying because we know that in this way we will find the peace of God, that peace which reassures the heart, and that peace which transcends all understanding! Let’s be the dads who pray and petition God with thanksgiving and praise because we know that He will provide us peace which stands guard over your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus!

Today’s devotional has been provided to us by Tez Brooks.

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 http://www.tezbrooks.com.

Takeaways from Today’s Devotional:
“Monitoring Your Engine Lights: Caring For Self“

• Let’s be the dads who realize where we are at today!
• Let’s be the dads who reflect upon the reality that something happened and now we are where we are at!
• Let’s be the dads who lean on God and look for resources who can help us in becoming the dads God created and purposed for us to be!
• Let’s be the dads who look for support in the midst of what we are going through to ensure we are in a good place to be able to be the dads we need to be for our kids!
• Let’s be the dads who turn to God’s Word to define us rather than allowing Hollywood and the media to put out lies and destructive messaging that look to tear us up and take us down!
• Today’s devotional speaks to this reality for single dads as follows:
  • “Regardless of how it occurred, becoming a single parent happened and somehow, we need to make this work. In addition to the staring crowds wondering if you can do this, there is a lack of help, lack of self-esteem, and lack of know-how. If that’s not enough, Hollywood keeps pumping out media portraying single fathers as incapable deadbeats. “
• Let’s be the dads who are willing to look for and look to be supportive of other dads!
• Let’s be the dads who are in the midst of our busy days to stay in contact with God to give us the wisdom, discernment, and strength to make it through our days!
• Let’s be the dads who aren’t so busy that we miss the warning signs, the lights on the dashboard of life that are telling us something is wrong!
• Let’s be the dads in spite of the busyness of life keep an eye on the dashboard to ensure that we don’t miss the sign and end up in a worst situation or position!
• Let’s be the dads who keep an eye on the dashboard of our lives to make sure if the warning sight turns on for our physical health we don’t miss it!
• Let’s be the dads who keep an eye on the dashboard of our lives to make sure if the warning sight turns on for our emotional health we don’t miss it!
• Let’s be the dads who keep an eye on the dashboard of our lives to make sure if the warning sight turns on for our spiritual health we don’t miss it!
• Today’s devotional points us to God’s Word when we face chaos of parenting when it shares:
  • “I learned a valuable lesson that day. Keep an eye on my dash displays. As good as I am about caring for my vehicles now, I still fail when it comes to other areas of life. My physical, emotional, and spiritual life can get ignored in the chaos of single parenting. Yet, 1 Peter 5:7 is a clear promise that I can hand over all my anxiety to God because he cares deeply about me.“
• Let’s be the dads who realize there are other warning lights on the dashboard of our lives that are warning signs for us “like irritability, bitterness, weight loss or gain, deliberate isolation, or unbelief in God’s kindness and care“!
• Let’s be the dads who are choosing to lean on God and live up to His calling and purpose in our lives rather than getting “exhausted from trying to measure up to people’s expectations“!
• Let’s be the dads who “do not neglect to do good, to contribute to the needy of the church as an expression of fellowship, for such sacrifices are always pleasing to God“!
• Let’s be the dads who focus on the dash lights of our lives so that we don’t find ourselves at the point of “a breakdown as leaders in our home“!
• Let’s be the dads who choose to be healthy and make healthy decisions so that when our kids are going through seasons of change we can provide them with the stability and security they need!
• As today’s devotional asks “how can we possibly provide stability and security for our children during seasons of change if we are not well ourselves?“!
• Let’s be the dads who turn to God’s Word frequently so that we are able to find and have “the means and hope for regular check-ups and maintenance, so our spiritual engine continues to run smoothly“!
• Today’s devotional closes with the following thought and then a reflection:
  • “Today’s scripture passages promise peace if we present our requests to God through prayer. Knowing he loves us and cares about every detail, no matter how big or how small, brings great hope in difficult situations. No matter what our week throws at us, God the Father ensures us in Proverbs 4:20-23, that we will experience life and health if we will listen to his Word and heed his instruction.“
  • “REFLECTION: What acts as your warning lights? Which distractions can you eliminate to focus more on your wellness rather than your anxiety? What can you do this week to ensure you have time to read God’s Word, refresh, and recharge as a single dad to be filled with hope again? “
• What an incredible message for single dads we have received today.
• To get the full message, check out today’s devotional we studied here: Hope for Single Fathers – Finalist for the 2022 Selah Awards, this reading plan addresses how dads can model trust and faith while navigating life’s hectic highway. For single fathers, the challenge increases. Men avoid asking for help because it implies weakness. Roadblocks of independence and pride cause discouragement and hopelessness. Based on the book “The Single Dad Detour” you’ll learn reliance on God and maintain hope to be the protective seatbelt your family needs. (bible.com)
• Are you a single dad who is looking for someone to come alongside you?
• Are you a dad who can come along side a single dad to help provide encouragement and help?
• Let’s be the dads who want to help both be the dads God created us to be as well as help other dads to step up and become the dads God created them to be!