Survival Gear for Dads – Day 2

It is amazing to me how quickly time flies and getting to look through various dad devotionals helps me grab hold of and make the most of each day. After a week of grabbing onto Love Slows Down, I did a search to discover what the next devotional series would be and found Survival Gear for Dads | Devotional Reading Plan | YouVersion Bible. Ever found it hard to be a godly dad? Ever found it exhausting to be a godly dad? Ever found it challenging to be a godly dad? Ever found it thrilling to be a godly dad? Ever found it confusing to be a godly dad? Ever found it rewarding to be a godly dad? As today’s devotional tells us “Being a godly father is an exhausting, challenging, thrilling, dangerous, confusing, and rewarding endeavor. It’s both a place you are and a journey you’re on. It’s a destination you arrive at and a process of becoming.” I am excited to get to read another devotional from the Manhood Journey and to read that this plan “will help you gear up for the journey, get a sense of where you are right now, and what steps to take next.” So let’s get into it and see what we can learn and what tools we can add to our toolbelt to be a part of our survival gear for this journey of being a godly dad!

Let’s check out our scriptures for today’s devotional:

• Psalms 119:11
• Psalms 119:105
• 2 Timothy 3:16

‘I have hidden your word in my heart that I might not sin against you. ‘

Psalms 119:11

‘Your word is a lamp for my feet, a light on my path. ‘

Psalms 119:105

‘All Scripture is God-breathed and is useful for teaching, rebuking, correcting and training in righteousness, ‘

2 Timothy 3:16

Every day I wake up and wonder what God is going to do today. Every day I start by turning to His Word! God’s Word is active and alive! God’s Word is available and accessible for us to use and reference to get through life! God’s Word is something we should meditate on and memorize. Let’s check out what the verses that related to today’s devotional tell us!

Let’s be the dads who store up God’s Word in our hearts so that when we are faced with having to make a decision we won’t sin against God! Let’s be the dads who write God’s Word in our hearts and allow the Holy Spirit to live in our hearts and invite Jesus into our hearts! Let’s be the dads who focus on God’s Word daily! Let’s be the dads who stay in contact with God throughout our days by praying without ceasing so that we always have the wisdom of the Holy Spirit to help us make the right decisions and move into all God has planned and prepared for us!

Let’s be the dads who use the Word of God as a lamp for our feet, helping us to know and see where we are going! Let’s be the dads who use the Word of God as a light unto our path so that we can see beyond our feet and be able to step out in faith, trusting God even when we can’t see that far ahead! Let’s be the dads who aren’t walking around, stumbling around, and bumping into everything because we spend time in the Word and we walk in alignment with the Word so that not only will we glorify God by pursuing His will and His way but will also will receive the desires of our heart that are so aligned and in pursuit of what God has prepared in advance for us!

Let’s be the dads who make time for the Word of God because we know that all scripture is God-breathed! Let’s be the dads who spend time in the Word of God because we know that it is useful for teaching, rebuking, correcting and training in righteousness! Let’s be the dads who use the Word of God to help us learn how to be dads! Let’s be the dads who use the Word of God to help teach, rebuke, correct, and train our kids! Let’s be the dads who use the word of God to build up our family, from our marriage with our wives to our parental leadership over our kids and finally to the world around us that God has perfectly positioned us to be in and at!

Today’s devotional has been provided by Manhood Journey (https://www.manhoodjourney.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)

For more information, please visit About The Publisher.

Takeaways from Today’s Devotional:
“Know Scripture“

• Let’s be the dads who wake up each morning and get ready for the day ahead because we know that today will be “more like a treacherous hike over tricky terrain.“
• Let’s be the dads who prepare each morning for the day ahead picking up “tools to help us along the way“
• Let’s be the dads who don’t just get up and go but pause long enough to pick up the “tools every godly dad needs in his pack.“
• Let’s be the dads who don’t rush into each day unprepared but rather “walk step by step, loading in each tool one at a time.“
• Let’s be the dads who don’t try to get through life alone but rather choose to walk it out with God so that “along the way, we’ll get help knowing why each tool is important and how to properly handle it.“
• Today’s devotional get us started with the second tool for our toolbelt that we need to be carrying with us today!
  • “Tool 2: Know Scripture”
    • Let’s be the dads who go beyond knowing about scripture and who choose to live out scripture!
    • Let’s be the dads who go beyond knowing about God and who choose to live in a relationship with God!
    • Let’s be the dads who go beyond knowing about God’s Word to understanding God’s Word and being able to apply it!
    • Let’s be the dads who use scripture to help us navigate life and live our lives as the husbands, fathers, sons, brothers, friends, and travelers passing by that God created and purposed for us to be!
    • Today’s devotional brings an interesting visual to mind when it comes to knowing scripture and it goes like this:
      • “J. I. Packer wrote in Knowing God about two kinds of people: the “balconeers” and the “travelers”. Picture folks sitting on a balcony of a home in a city, watching travelers go by. Balconeers might talk about the way the travelers walk, the terrain, and so on. But, their discussion is in theory only.“
      • “The travelers, on the other hand, actually face the problems—from which way to go and even how to make it. The travelers have actual experience. They speak from practice over theory. Dad, you are to be a fellow traveler with your family—not a balconeer.“
    • Let’s be the dads who take the Word of God and put it into practice!
    • Let’s be the dads who go from knowing what God’s Word says and start doing it and living it out!
    • Let’s be the dads who take the knowledge we receive from scripture and choose to live the life Jesus came to give us “life and life more abundantly“!
    • Today’s devotional speaks to this as follows:
      • “God has chosen to speak to us through His Word. May we turn our knowledge about God and His Word into actually knowing Him and doing His will. You and I need a command of God’s Word so we can shine the light of God’s truth into the lives of our families.“
    • Let’s be the dads who point our wives, kids, and this world to God because of our knowledge of God and His Word!
    • Let’s be the dads who point our wives, kids, and this world to God because we know God and His Word and as such His will!
    • Let’s be the dads who take the calling to be husbands, dads, and men in the world and take hold of what scripture tells us in Deuteronomy 6 when it says:
      • ‘Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your strength. These commandments that I give you today are to be on your hearts. Impress them on your children. Talk about them when you sit at home and when you walk along the road, when you lie down and when you get up. Tie them as symbols on your hands and bind them on your foreheads. Write them on the doorframes of your houses and on your gates. ‘
        Deuteronomy 6:5-9
    • Let’s be the dads who grab onto the scripture for today from today’s devotional!
    • Let’s be the dads who allow the light of scripture to be a light unto our feet and a lamp unto our path so that we can know and see what God has for us!
    • Let’s be the dads who consider how God’s Word is a lamp and light on the path when you face difficult choices!
      • ‘Trust in the Lord with all your heart and lean not on your own understanding; in all your ways submit to him, and he will make your paths straight. ‘
        Proverbs 3:5-6
    • Let’s be the dads who consider how God’s Word is a lamp and light on the path when you face a decision and you need to know right from wrong!
      • ‘Your word is a lamp for my feet, a light on my path. ‘ Psalms 119:105
    • Let’s be the dads who consider how God’s Word is a lamp and light on the path be like David when He said:
      • ‘I have hidden your word in my heart that I might not sin against you. ‘ Psalms 119:11
    • Today’s devotional closes with the following:
      • “The one light source that will never fade or lead us astray—God’s Word. When your child asks a question, how do you illuminate their path? “