Well, you did it? Or did you? For the past 16 days, I’ve shared some thoughts, challenges and tried to help us think about our roles as dads in a fresh, significant and honorable manner. I honestly don’t expect that I’ll hear from anyone that actually did these each day. But, it’s a framework that you can come back to periodically if you bookmark the page(s) or post(s) that you do want to take part in. That’s the beauty and challenge of being a dad. There is no report card. Sometimes we won’t know how we did until years from now when our kids are grown and we see if the seeds we’ve sown have impacted their lives in any way. And, hopefully not badly.
I have some wonderful friends, men of God who I know (as much as I can know) raised up their children with love, appropriate discipline and intentionality. Yet, they have a child who is estranged from them or doing things that are so contradictory to what they were taught and how they were loved and brought up. Bottom line…there is no guarantee that if you give your children all the time, attention, appropriate discipline and leadership in the world that they will turn out to be lovers of God, healthy and productive young men and women. That’s not up to us. But, I can almost guarantee you (based on study after study) that if you don’t raise them that way, they will almost certainly be headed for a life of pain and sorrow.
Dad (and dad to be), you are so critical to the health of your family. It’s why you need to find your health in the One who designed you, with the company of other men desiring the same thing and building into your life as you build into theirs. Being a dad isn’t like Nik Wallenda walking across Niagara Falls on a highwire, i.e., alone and single minded. We need God, each other and as much help as we can get to fulfill this role. But, there is nothing more rewarding that we’ll ever do. Ever.
So, if you found something helpful during the last couple of weeks, share it below. Come back and join us at DadPad for continual challenges, opportunities, stories of success and some failures and let’s do this dad-thing together.
HAPPY FATHER’S DAY, DAD! You da man!
Let me conclude with a little poem I drummed up (cuz Dad’s usually like poetry 
):
A little Father’s Day poem:
To every man who has been called a dad
By someone who’s looked up to you
You’ve been there in the good and bad
And helped them know just what to do
Our job as father is not easy or simple
to love those around us and lead them well
But who else has such a significant chance to make a ripple
Into the life of another–deep where the soul dwells
Because a father makes an impact
into the lives he’s been given, like it or not
It’s the nature of God–his sovereign act
to put fathers in this life changing role even if not sought
So, Dad, today hold your chest out and your chin high
Because there is no one as qualified as you
To touch those you’ve been given, so you must always try
And give them your best, the you that God made – now do.