One of the most important realms of ministry for a father is their children. It also can be one of the toughest. We may kick ourselves for not going on a mission trip to India or sharing the Gospel with a neighbor (both great things), but your best chance to influence someone for life is by spending time with them…a lot of time.

As a new father, I experience the daily joys and blessings of raising a little girl. Although she is not yet a year old, I am growing in my knowledge and understanding of what it means to be a husband and father through God’s word and my local church. The more I read scripture, observe others and reflect upon my own upbringing, it is becoming clearer that fatherhood is no light endeavor.

We are going to look at how God parents us as His children and apply this to our relationships with our children. This is intended to be encouraging and helpful, as you grow in your relationship with your children and with God.

Okay, Dad, it’s time to put away the Christmas sweaters and get ready for the start of the year. Your wife may be talking about starting a new diet as a family, and your employer may want to you to turn in what your objectives are for the first quarter. But we would suggest setting some Dad goals to start your year off in the right direction.

Your calendar matters. I was scrolling through pictures on my iPhone last week and cleaning out some old photos to make room for new ones. As I was selecting images to purge, I found myself noticing how much my children have grown over the last two years. I found a video of my daughter’s first few steps, my son learning to ride his bike, pictures of family trips to the beach and mountains and a short video of my daughter singing her ABC’s. I started to get quite sentimental, and I thought: Geez it goes by too fast.

Dad’s listen up. There is something absolutely wonderful about being a dad to sons. Raising sons is a noble and important task. Part of the reason Uncommen was founded was because of the fatherhood crisis we are seeing in our society today. Look up the stats and you will see that fatherlessness is a huge problem in our juvenile court systems, in prisons, and in schools today. We have all seen or experienced firsthand the devastation of a lack of father involvement in the life of young men. So rather than milling about with our heads down, it’s time to do something about it.