Dads: Be Doers

The strawberries taste like strawberries. The snozberries taste like snozberries. Snozzberries? What the heck of a snozzberry? We are the music makers, and we are the dreamer of This is the Music Makers podcast where I read things out loud to you and then offer my unqualified opinions on them.

Dads be doers by Sarah j He didn't tell me how to live. He lived, and he let me watch him do it. Clarence Kelland. Nearly every morning, I experience the same thing. It's like clockwork.

I run downstairs usually because I'm running late. Murphy, our gigantic goldendoodle, meets me at the bottom and kindly leans into me expecting to get a good 10 second scratch. I look over at the couch and see my dad reading his Bible with a cup of coffee in hand. We exchange good mornings. I tell him I'm sleepy, and we both say, love you.

Hope you have a great day, as I walk towards the front door. Every morning, it's the same consistent and steady life of my dad that I see being lived right in front of me. And not just me, right in front of everyone too. I've grown up with a dad that set the standard for our family. Of course, we had rules and structures within our home, but when it came to my dad telling us how we should live, we'd never really hear such suggestions because greater than those that hear the word are those that do it.

You see, my dad, he's a doer. He doesn't hide his excitement and insecurity. He celebrates the smallest victories with us. He doesn't always hide his frustration, but he is quick to calm down and remember what matters. He doesn't always hide when he's mad, but he is consistent in owning up in his mistake, apologizing, and asking for forgiveness.

He doesn't withhold good things from us or others, but he is quick to give his best in all things. He doesn't love from a distance, but he is involved and present in the lives of his children, always pursuing a deeper relationship. I want to remind the dads out there of something. Your kids are watching you. They're watching the way you respond and react, how you give and withhold, how you celebrate or belittle, how you're involved and present or distant and insecure.

We see it all. And the life you live, whether you're conscious of it or not, sets a standard for our hearts and lives ever unfolding. The greatest gift you can give to your children is to love God with all your heart, all your mind, and all your strength. It's the single most impactful example you will ever demonstrate. Your allegiance to God will sow seeds so deeply rooted in the hearts of your kids that the storms of life could never destroy its fruit.

And no one is asking you to be perfect and flawless because mistakes and slip ups only present another opportunity for you to show us the better way. Dads, when you love God with all that you are and all that you have, you won't always have to tell your kids how to live. We'll simply show us. Every once in a while, I will read an article that is not immediately applicable, but I store it away in my Evernote anyway just because I love it so much. So this article does not serve as some sort of announcement.

My wife and I aren't planning on having kids for a number of years, but it's still a great article and one that I wanna talk about. So since I don't have any kids, I'm gonna talk a little bit about my dad and some of the things he modeled for us at home. One, right off the top of my head, is how much he loves my mom. And I'm sure he's told us that before, that he loves my mom. But really, the reason I know that is because I can see it in the things that he does.

At some point, my mom mentioned she likes flowers. And since then, my dad has gotten my mom fresh flowers every week. We're talking like for 30 years or something like that. Every Saturday there are fresh flowers because my mom likes flowers and my dad likes my mom. I also remember growing up, and he still does it today, but I specifically remember in my childhood, that he would open every single door for my mom.

Whenever we would all go somewhere as a family, when we got back to the house, we would come in through the garage, and then my brother and I would line up at the door waiting for my mom to go in because we weren't allowed to enter before my mom. And those are just 2 two small examples of things that my dad did to show that he loved my mom. And now that I'm married, guess what things I do? Some of the same things my dad did. Another thing that I think I picked up from my dad is that he's always got a project going, always working on something cool, either in and around the house or building something out in the garage or something in the backyard.

He built us this awesome tree house when we were kids and to this day is always tinkering with something in the house. Some, there's some wall he wants to move or some way that the patio could be built better, and so he's drawing it out and thinking about how to do it. Now I see that totally in my life. I've always got projects going on. I've got projects going on in the computer.

I've got projects where I'm outside in the garage building things or setting up LED lights all around the house because everything needs to have hidden recessed lighting, which is true. I'm very grateful that my dad is a doer, that he doesn't just say things and never does them, but that he actually follows through and he does the things that he talks about. He doesn't say, well, it's important to love your wife, and then never surprise my mom with flowers. Although after 30 years, is it a surprise? I don't know, but she still likes it.

And as I'm looking forward one day to hopefully being a dad, I wanna be a dad who does things. I want my kids to know what I believe based on my actions, not just me preaching at them, but they can look at my life and see the things that I value. Theodore Roosevelt, who was arguably our most badass president ever, kept a journal starting as a very young kid. And in his journal, as a 13 year old, he decided to join what he called the fellowship of doers. And it was his determined goal to no longer be just an idle talker, but a bold doer.

I first read about the fellowship of doers in the book The Rise of Theodore Roosevelt, and I've just been hooked on that idea ever since. I want to be a doer. I want to be someone who does things, not someone who just talks about them, but someone who does them. And especially in the context of raising kids, I want to be the dad who lives out his convictions, his beliefs, his interests, his passions, his hobbies, so that my kids will feel inspired, compelled, and allowed to live out those things in their lives, just like I do. You can find the show notes for this episode at musicmakers.fm/11.

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