Responsible Father

Dads, do not dress your kids or yourself in a shirt that does not tuck in.

(But she says she got it from some other source)

Dads, you can’t expect what you aren’t going to inspect.

Dads, we’re well past the non-green days. But now it’s blossom time.

You only have a week to enjoy the days where trees are exploding with flowers. Go now. Take a walk with your family. Do it for your wife.

We recommend a walk around Como Lake in St. Paul.

This from philthecarl:

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I met with Andy Gammons today and he had a great tip. He said he always tries to express to his children the work of grace he sees in them, in the moment it’s happening.

Feel free to reword.

phil

PS – I shared this with my small group tonight and they were all blessed by it, and we all agreed that we shouldn’t just do this for our children, but for all believers.

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I saw no reason to reword

Last week I asked for tips from other parents. I got this one from Jason:

Dads, Write ”play with your kids” on your to do list (if you like lists) – if you don’t like lists, play with your kids.

Quite good. Phil and Andy, yours is next

And everyone else, keep them coming.

Dads, do you have a tip for Parenting that might help others? Email it to me and I’ll post it here.

Dads (okay, Dad’s in the northern part of the US and similar climes), you have a unique opportunity and a narrow window of time right now to enjoy nature as it rarely is.

Go right now, with your kids, on a walk through any woods (the bigger the better) and you will experience this rare combination:

1. Dry (as in snow-less and mud-less) ground.

2. Air temperatures comfortable to walk in.

3. Mostly leafless trees.

Your first thought might be – but green is what I want! Trees without leaves aren’t beautiful.

If you’re saying this, I’m guessing you haven’t tried it. It not unbeautiful, it’s just a different kind of beauty. God uses a different pallet in this part of spring. Look at the woods. And then look through them. You can see greater distances these days.

In the Twin Cities, I recommend Fort Snelling State Park

Okay, I just checked – don’t go there right now. It’s flooded.

So . . . How about William O’Brien?

Dads, when it comes to leading spiritual times with your kids, you should:

- Teach them the Gospel
- Teach them hymns
- Read to them from the Bible
- Go over the papers they’ve gotten from Sunday School
- Pray with them
- Read them children’s Bibles
- Bless them
- Memorize scripture
- Read to them missionary biographies
- Talk about missionaries you are supporting
- Teach them the Gospel

What, you say you couldn’t possibly do all of those things every day? Well, then you are a bad dad*.

Okay, I just looked at my notes and it turns out that wasn’t what I was going to say.

What I was going to say that is that not being able to do all of the things on this list means you are normal.  So if you are doing none of these things, start doing one of them.  If you are doing one of them, try doing two of them.  And then three and four. . .

If it’s been a while since you’ve done one of these things (or you’ve never done it), try doing it.

Be creatively consistent.

What did I leave off my list?

* Egad.

You sing it to your kids once in a while, correct?

Try this idea from my wife (who says she got it from somewhere else):

When you get to the ee – i – ee – i – oh part, change it to A – E – I – O – U.

Then with almost no effort on your part (or their’s) you will have taught them the vowels, in order.

This will be valuable when it’s time for them to learn to read.