I’ve been thinking and finding a lot of joy lately in the fact that as a dad one of my primary jobs is actually NOT to provide for my family, but instead to truly provide for my family. Let me explain 😬

So many of us dads think the main role of being a dad is to provide the income. And is that a part? Sure. But in that pursuit we sometimes lose out or exclude ourselves from providing what our kids really need – presence, love, teaching, correction, encouragement, apprenticeship, etc. I think as a dad instead my main focus and priority is to craft and cultivate an environment where the home is seen as the very nerve center and headquarters of all things life related. Ground zero in the pursuit and practice of the art of being human and loving God and loving neighbor. Where the kids and our marriage have a controlled environment of covenantal love to explore, learn, and love safely.

But sadly a lot of us dads sometimes treat home as nothing more than a place for a bunch of individuals to sleep, and maybe get a good meal. But what if instead we saw it as our own little private center for human and spiritual development that God has given us domain over in partnership with our spouse? And things like work or creativity or education actually are offshoots of the home, not competing entities. Would we treat it any differently?