Radical Wisdom: A 7-Day Journey For Fathers – Day 6 – Teach that they are complete

Today’s devotional is powerful and calls us to step up and be the dads who are following Jesus! To teach our kids that they are complete in Jesus! We are being called to be the dads who help our kids know who they are! We are being called to teach our kids whose they are! We are being called to be the dads who teach their kids they are “completely forgiven, totally adequate, and perfectly worthy“!

Today’s devotional on the eve of Christmas and the eve of our last devotional, let’s remember its purpose before we jump into it:

It’s crazy how much our dads shape us. No one escapes the power and influence of their earthly father. And since most men feel unprepared to be fathers, it’s essential to seek guidance – from Scripture and from other dads. Radical Wisdom is a journey toward wisdom and insight for fathers, combining principles and wisdom from Scripture with the experience of an older, wiser dad who’s learned from his mistakes.

Radical Wisdom: A 7-Day Journey For Fathers | Devotional Reading Plan | YouVersion Bible

Scripture from Today’s Devotional:

We’ve gotten the call to be the dads and so let’s go to the instruction manual called to the Bible first before we move forward! God’s Word will never return void! God’s Word will help cut through the noise and the distraction and get to the core of the matter!

Let’s be the dads who receive and then who share with our kids the truth of just as in His love He chose us in Christ, actually selecting us for Himself as His own before the foundation of the world that He also chose them! Let’s be the dads who receive and then who share with our kids the truth of just as in His love He chose us in Christ so that we would be holy that is, consecrated, set apart for Him, purpose-driven, and blameless in His sight that He also chose them! Let’s be the dads who receive and then who share with our kids how in love God predestined and lovingly planned for us to be adopted to Himself as His own children through Jesus Christ, in accordance with the kind intention and good pleasure of His will! Let’s be the dads who receive and then who share with our kids what an incredible quality of love the Father has shown to us, that we would be permitted to be named and called and counted the children of God! Let’s be the dads who receive and share with our kids that so we are! Let’s be the dads who accept and then who share with our kids that for this reason, the world does not know us because it did not know Him! Let’s be the dads who receive and then who share with our kids that God calls us beloved and that we are even here and now children of God, and it is not yet made clear what we will be after His coming! Let’s be the dads who receive and then who share with our kids that everyone who has this hope confidently placed in Him purifies himself, just as He is pure, holy, undefiled, and guiltless! Let’s be the dads who are not only our kids’ earthly dads but also their spiritual dads so that we can have no greater joy than this, to hear that my [spiritual] children are living [their lives] in the truth! Let’s be the dads who accept the command of Jesus and then pass it along to our kids that we are to love one another (our brothers and sisters in Christ), just as Jesus has loved us, revealing to the world that we are disciples of Jesus by loving and showing unselfish concern for one another!

Today’s devotional has been provided to us by Regi Campbell from Radical Mentoring.

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 Radical Wisdom: A Daily Journey for Leaders (radicalmentoring.com).

Takeaways from Today’s Devotional:
“Jesus-Following Dads“

• Are you a Jesus-following dad?
• Are you a follower of Jesus?
• Do you know where to start when it comes to being a Jesus-following dad?
• Let’s be the dads who are Jesus’ followers!
• Today’s devotional kicks off by helping us know where to start: help your kids to “understand who they are in Christ“!
• Let’s be the dads who help our kids to “understand who they are in Christ“!
• Let’s be the dads who teach our kids so they will “know they are an adopted child of the King of kings—completely forgiven, totally adequate, and perfectly worthy“!
• Let’s be the dads who make sure our “kids understand who they are in Christ” so “they discover a meaningful identity“!
• Let’s be the dads who help our kids understand this identity because “this identity makes it much easier to know what to do in those moments when right and wrong seem fuzzy, or when parents push back on a decision“!
• Let’s be the dads who live and teach our kids to measure our decisions against WWJD – What Would Jesus Do?
• Let’s be the dads who help our kids build their lives on the foundation of Jesus!
• Today’s devotional closes with an example of friends of the author and their kids and how having their own identities in Christ has impacted their lives and their decisions:
  • “My friends Craig and Kerry have three wonderful daughters. When decisions come up about short skirts and low-cut blouses, Kerry asks, “Do you think that’s appropriate?” A lot of kids would push back, thinking mom is putting her idea of appropriate on them.“
  • “But these girls have developed their own identities . . . their own standards of what’s appropriate and what’s not. They’ve avoided most of the fights about what can be worn and what can’t because they have thought it through for themselves. “I know who I am. People like me don’t wear stuff like that. People like me don’t do those things.”“
• Today’s devotional closes with this question to ponder:
  • “Question: Will you focus on identity with your kids, leading them to know who they are in Christ?“