Responsible Father

1. What’s with the name?

I decided to go with “Responsible Father” for these reasons:

A. This is blog for and about Dads.

B. I like how its title makes a nice companion to my other blog. Maybe someday I’ll host a whole *suite of “Responsible” blogs.

C. I like that there are more than one meaning for “Responsible”. Here are two that are pertinent:
a. Able to make moral or rational decisions on one’s own and therefore answerable for one’s behavior.
b. Liable to be required to give account, as of one’s actions or of the discharge of a duty or trust.

Thus, while only “good” fathers are (more or less) responsible in the first sense, all fathers are or will be responsible in the second.

D. More to the point, I like what Pastor Piper had to say about this.

When Adam and Eve sinned in the garden and God came to call them to account, it didn’t matter that Eve had sinned first. God said, “Adam, where are you?” (Genesis 3:9). That’s God’s word to the family today: Adam, husband, father, where are you? If something is not working right at your house and Jesus comes knocking on the door, he may have an issue with your wife, but the first thing he’s going to say when she opens the door is, “Is the man of the house home?”

So I hope this blog helps men (including myself) become more responsible, and serves to remind them that they will be held responsible sooner or later.

2. Do you consider yourself to be a Responsible Father (in the first sense)?

I’d consider myself to be better than average, which is not good enough. I pray daily for more wisdom, grace, peace, calmness. The next time you talk to me ask me about the last time I failed as a Father and I bet I’ll be able to tell you something recent.

* Don’t count on it.