Welcome to our broadcast today with Mitch and Amanda in Belfast. Mitch, a few broadcasts ago you challenged me to come up with five top tips for busy moms. So I’m gonna push it back at you today and I want you to come up with your top tips for busy dads.
Okay, well, first and foremost guys, I’m busy and many of you dads will be busy as well, so I don’t come to this well prepared, I guess, you know, because I’m busy. But I’ve really kind of minded on what are the key things that I would really love to impart and pass onto you.
If truth be told, you know, I was 13, I lost my dad and I’ve got two teenagers, 17 and 14, so I didn’t have anybody to model this for me. I’m just doing on the hoof. I’m not saying that my top tips are the best, but I’ve given a little bit of thought to this and I hope that they’ll be of some value to you. The the first one is this. You’ve got to manage your time. That might seem strikingly obvious, but managing your time, that you’re not just build your time into your diary and your schedule for your work, but also manage your time with your kids and invest time in them.
I remember Artie Candle some years ago saying that children spell love t-i-m-e. I thought that was such a real challenge and we’ve gotta ask our kids. And I ask my daughter, she’s 14, oftentimes, “Are you free to do something?” More often than not, she’ll say, “No.” When she was younger, she would’ve said yes, but just making yourself available. You’ve gotta manage your time for your kids.
The second point is this, you’ve got to be a man of integrity, a man of principle. If they see you kind of speaking out your, your mind, speaking negatively of your wife or a business or not managing your taxes well, you’re not gonna model that well for your kids. So in that modeling, you’ve got to be a man of principle and integrity. Not a liar, not a cheat. They’re gonna see it. They see the real man in the home.
And the third point is this, you got to be a worshiping dad. You know, if, if you love Jesus, they’ve got to see you love Jesus. That’s right. And not just in the crowd on a Sunday. They’ve got to see you as a worshiping dad in the home. That’s really important.
The fourth point I wanna pass on is this. You’ve got to be the dad that pastors your home. Don’t advocate that responsibility to the pastor in your church or to the youth worker, a children’s worker. You’ve got to take the lead and model the prayer time, model those key things into your family.
And the last one is this, have fun with your kids. Yes, you’ve got to have fun. You’ve got to be a dad who’s fun. You’ve got to make time even to do the things you don’t want to do. Go on roller coasters. I’m getting too old for roller coasters, but sometimes it’s just having a little bit of fun with your kids.
Oh, that’s great. And we’d love to just pray today for dads. So let’s pray together. Father God, we thank you that you are the good Father and that we get to see how you love us. And we pray for all the dads who are watching today. Father, may they know your love and may you help them to display your love in and through everything they do. Amen.