Foundation Father
Gravitas means you have weight. People tend to conflate it with somberness and over-seriousness, but the men who have the most gravitas usually have an equal amount of charisma. Gravitas means you have responsibilities that you take seriously, but you don’t take yourself seriously. You treat things with the tone and attention they deserve. Modern […]
Good fathers are good husbands. How you treat your wife will be mimicked by your boys and expected by your girls. Guiding their mother is guiding one of your children’s main role models, so it is a job to take seriously. At a minimum, this means you should stay married. It is one of the […]
If you want to be treated like a man, you have to act like a man. This means taking on responsibility without grumbling or complaining. And it means direct speech without any waffle words or detached irony. You aren’t owed respect. You have to earn it. I had to earn it from my father-in-law. I […]
Envy is a powerful emotion. And it is a form of relational acid. If not kept in check, it will destroy relationships. A tranquil heart gives life to the flesh, but envy makes the bones rot. Proverbs 14:30 It can also twist a person’s affections beyond recognition, making them chase things they don’t even care […]
If you have sons but only one daughter, you can inadvertently cause her to beg for your attention. Even if it is an accident, you are responsible. You are a father. You don’t get to coast along taking the path of least resistance. You must be intentional. Here is the problem: it’s easier to relate […]
We get a lot of things backward. Due to our laziness and apathy, fathers can find themselves in a difficult position once their children become teenagers. All of a sudden, the lack of discipline is no longer cute. The tantrums thrown when the child was six look downright ugly when the child is thirteen. The […]
A girl craves male attention and validation. She seeks it out. She desires it most from her father, and a good father will provide that attention and validation. If she has a weak or absent father, she will have her confidence destroyed and her view of the world warped. Let’s walk through a common scenario […]
A good man leaves an inheritance to his children’s children, but the sinner’s wealth is laid up for the righteous. Proverbs 13:22 It is not enough to think about the future of your children. If you are not at least thinking about what you will leave your grandchildren, you are not thinking long-term enough. Why […]
If you have been blessed with sons and daughters you will have noticed the differences between them. Boys and girls are different. Those differences are glorious. Even so, until they reach a certain age, they are still just kids. They will play a lot of the same games. Even wrestle. Girls wrestle differently than boys […]
I won’t bury the lede. Reading to your kids every night is one of the best habits to have. Start immediately after they are born, before they can hold their head up, before they can crawl, before they can read. The earlier the better. Always be reading above their own reading level. The dividends are […]