Insights on Fatherhood…as of late

Here I am…a father of five years…learning how to be a dad. I’ve made some right decisions and some bad decisions. I’ve made some easy decisions and some hard decisions. All-in-all, if there’s one thing that I’ve learned, I now know why parents are so tired all the time!

Just kidding! I’m learning a lot about fatherhood. Just a few things I’d like to mention in this post are:

1. Fatherhood takes a lot of work. I need to do my best all of the time. There is no relaxing when it comes to being a dad. My two sons have a needs. They need me to be on my game all the time (not my Gameboy, or my PS2, or my Wii, or my Xbox, or whatever game!!). They need me to be their dad all of the time, not just when I “feel” like it.
2. Fatherhood takes a lot of time. I need to give my time all of the time. I have always wanted to control my time the way I wanted. If I wanted to take the time to nap, then I took a nap. If I wanted to watch TV, then I watched TV. If I wanted to go out and do whatever, I did whatever. I’m discovering that my two sons want me to spend time with them…paying attention to them…giving them my time. (I’m still working on this one because I’m still selfish when it comes to my time, but I’m starting to get the message on this one.)
3. Fatherhood takes a lot of love. I need to show my love all of the time. This is hard sometimes when I expect my two sons to already know everything that I do. After all, they should know it all, right? Wrong! They’re boys and they’re still growing up. I’m supposed to be teaching them and they are looking to me to teach them how to be men and if I don’t love them enough to teach them, the world is willing to teach them everything that it loves–and the things the world loves is not a pretty thing. I need to love my two sons enough to teach them in the way they should go: the way of righteousness, holiness, love, nobility, peace, courage, boldness, strength, honor, and integrity.
4. Fatherhood takes a lot of patience. I need to give my patience all of the time. I lack patience most of the time. I have to be honest on this one. I lack patience. Sheesh! That’s hard to admit, but it’s true. Even when I pray for patience (and that’s not often!), I still struggle with it, but I need to show my two sons patience. They are boys who need a father who lovingly shows patience as they are finding their way in this life with me patiently helping them to see the Light of the world.
5. Fatherhood takes righteousness. I need to be a righteous father. In all my dealings, I need to seek to be righteous in all that I do. Whether it be in speech or in deed, I need to be right according to a right and moral standard. The only right and moral standard that I know is the Lord Jesus Christ and His Word, the Bible. Therefore, I need to read it and study it and live by it to the best of my ability. My two sons need to see me living a life of righteousness to the best of my ability.
6. Fatherhood takes responsibility. I need to live a life of responsibility. I need to make sure that my bills are paid on time. I need to show them how to show up on early to church, to work, to events so my two sons know that it is important to be responsible in every area of life. They need to know how important it is to know how to carry and shoot a firearm and that they are used for hunting and for protection of oneself, never to kill or to maim another human. They need to know that it’s my responsibility to teach them the Word of God and to live out my Christianity before them by teaching them verbally and by showing them that I live according to what I believe.

These are just a few things that I’ve been learning over these last five years. I still have so much more to learn. What would you add to this list?