Latest / 5–Minute Parenting: Tips to Help You Raise Competent, Godly Kids. / What Being a Dad Has Taught Me About Our Father

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What Being a Dad Has Taught Me About Our Father · 5–Minute Parenting: Tips to Help You Raise Competent, Godly Kids.

• 0:34
  SPEAKER_01: Welcome to another episode of Five Minute Parenting.
• 0:38
  SPEAKER_01: Today I have a special guest and the first dad on this on my podcast.
• 0:44
  SPEAKER_01: Welcome to Matthew Crackler.
• 0:47
  SPEAKER_01: He's the proud father of three amazing young girls and the host of the Girl Dad Nation podcast.
• 0:55
  SPEAKER_01: Matthew started the podcast to learn from other dads with daughters and to share some helpful tips and reflections along his journey.
• 1:04
  SPEAKER_01: He often says there's no greater joy than being a dad.
• 1:09
  SPEAKER_01: Today, Matthew's going to share with us what being a dad has taught me about our father.
• 1:16
  SPEAKER_01: Thank you, Matthew, for joining us.
• 1:19
  SPEAKER_00: Thank you, Sandra.
• 1:20
  SPEAKER_00: It's great to be with you.
• 1:22
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah, and I wanted to ask you, how old are your girls?
• 1:26
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah, so my oldest is four now, and then we have a two-year-old and a nine-month-old.
• 1:31
  SPEAKER_01: Well, that should keep you busy.
• 1:34
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah, it does.
• 1:35
  SPEAKER_01: Since you and your wife both work, and uh, I discovered you do uh full-time video, and I also saw you love to do design, you design board games and create escape rooms.
• 1:48
  SPEAKER_01: So that sounds like fun.
• 1:51
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah, I love being creative, and whenever possible, um, I love encouraging my daughters uh to jump in and be creative as well.
• 1:58
  SPEAKER_00: So yeah.
• 1:59
  SPEAKER_01: That's great.
• 2:00
  SPEAKER_01: Well, I'll let you go ahead and begin your topic today for our listeners.
• 2:08
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah, I love this topic because um just as becoming a dad, I thought a lot about what that actually means to be a dad.
• 2:17
  SPEAKER_00: Um, there's many different terms, you know, father, dad, daddy.
• 2:21
  SPEAKER_00: Um and yeah, just one of my favorite terms is just dad, since it's just so personable.
• 2:28
  SPEAKER_00: And that's really at the heart of what that means as relationship.
• 2:33
  SPEAKER_00: And then that also got me thinking about the way that we have this calling to a relationship with God our Father.
• 2:41
  SPEAKER_00: And that's that's the way that we are introduced to him.
• 2:45
  SPEAKER_00: Um, we are encouraged to call God our Father, and we have this really great prayer um that Jesus gives us.
• 2:53
  SPEAKER_00: Uh, we we call it the Lord's Prayer.
• 2:56
  SPEAKER_00: Um, it's in Matthew's gospel um near the Sermon on the Mount.
• 3:00
  SPEAKER_00: And yeah, the Lord's Prayer or the Our Father Prayer.
• 3:04
  SPEAKER_00: Um, but this this really great invitation uh to come to know God as this loving father.
• 3:12
  SPEAKER_00: And I know so many people unfortunately have bad relationships uh with their earthly father.
• 3:20
  SPEAKER_00: Um, and but then there's so many amazing good things that come out of each one of us, even though we're not perfect, the way that we strive to be better parents, better fathers for our kids, um, and the way that we can come to know God through that relationship uh has just been really great.
• 3:41
  SPEAKER_00: So uh the other thing I was thinking about is the primary role of a father.
• 3:46
  SPEAKER_00: And a lot of people may think that a prime the primary role of a father is to protect, and that's true.
• 3:54
  SPEAKER_00: There father does need to protect, or the primary role is to provide.
• 3:59
  SPEAKER_00: And I know a lot of hardworking fathers out there um that do everything they can to provide.
• 4:04
  SPEAKER_00: Um, that's that's also a good thing.
• 4:07
  SPEAKER_00: But the way I see the primary role of the father is is in love, and and that's a direct model of our heavenly father.
• 4:18
  SPEAKER_00: And the Bible says that God is love.
• 4:21
  SPEAKER_00: And so when we think about God as love, then it totally changes the perspective of like what we are called as fathers.
• 4:29
  SPEAKER_00: So it's not just to provide, but it's to provide and love.
• 4:33
  SPEAKER_00: It's not just to protect, but it's to protect and love.
• 4:35
  SPEAKER_00: It's not just to like direct or discipline, but it's it's doing all of those things out of love.
• 4:42
  SPEAKER_00: Um, and so once we kind of uh can see that love as the foundation of everything we do, we can more perfectly align ourselves uh with our perfect father in heaven.
• 4:54
  SPEAKER_00: Um, and then the other thing that I was thinking about is justice and mercy.
• 4:59
  SPEAKER_00: So this kind of goes back to the father being a disciplinarian um and having to like establish uh his authority in the household and things like that.
• 5:09
  SPEAKER_00: Um, and justice is a really good thing.
• 5:11
  SPEAKER_00: There is this virtue of justice, but along with that um comes this opportunity for mercy.
• 5:18
  SPEAKER_00: And that's where justice meets love um in the form of mercy.
• 5:24
  SPEAKER_00: And we have a very merciful father.
• 5:26
  SPEAKER_00: Um, he's always willing to like approach us uh with great love.
• 5:32
  SPEAKER_00: And we have these examples in the Bible.
• 5:34
  SPEAKER_00: One of my favorites is the story of the prodigal son who takes the father's inheritance, uh basically says, You're as good as dead to me, um, and leaves his father, squanders the inheritance, has basically nothing, and just he he gets the courage to eventually return home.
• 5:54
  SPEAKER_00: And while he was still a long ways off, the father runs out and greets him.
• 5:59
  SPEAKER_00: And just the love that he had for his son who was lost, uh, but he says, now you're found.
• 6:05
  SPEAKER_00: Um, it's just it's such an amazing story of the father's love for his son, the way that our heavenly father loves each one of us, and the way that like I hope to be as a father, um, constantly uh showing mercy to my kids, constantly being uh ready and willing with open arms to embrace them.
• 6:28
  SPEAKER_00: Um, and it's just such a joy when I come home uh at the end of every day and I'm greeted by my kids and they just run up to me and just the way that I can greet them with open arms, uh, the way that uh that prodigal son's father greeted him.
• 6:43
  SPEAKER_00: Um that's just uh such a wonderful gift.
• 6:47
  SPEAKER_00: And and I've also seen that modeled in my own kids where um I've had to lay down the law sometimes where I'm like, look, you you made a bad choice.
• 6:57
  SPEAKER_00: You are not gonna get dessert tonight.
• 6:59
  SPEAKER_00: And that's the justice that has to come forth uh based on a certain action.
• 7:05
  SPEAKER_00: But then I see my kids, it's so it's such a blessing now that I have three kids to see that they the way that they interact together, the way that they like have to work together to support each other and really care for each other, that it it totally becomes selfless in the way that they have to go through life and and see their sisters' needs um sometimes in front of their own.
• 7:30
  SPEAKER_00: And so uh one of these stories, I had to say, look, you did something wrong, you knew the consequences, or you're not gonna get a cookie, for instance.
• 7:42
  SPEAKER_00: Um, but your other sister, she ate all her dinner, or she like uh got dressed when you wanted to, or brushed her teeth, or whatever.
• 7:50
  SPEAKER_00: So she gets a treat.
• 7:52
  SPEAKER_00: But then the way that I saw the other sister get what was rightfully hers, she received the treat, but then she looked with mercy on her other sister, knowing that her other sister wanted to partake in that.
• 8:07
  SPEAKER_00: And so I had kind of given the justice, giving one what they what they were owed, and then not for the other.
• 8:16
  SPEAKER_00: But then she shared her cookie.
• 8:18
  SPEAKER_00: She knew that she would receive less, but she was willing to break her cookie and share that with her sister out of mercy, and it was just such a really beautiful example of the way that like we we have all these things in life, and like we we have an opportunity for justice, and that's a good thing.
• 8:38
  SPEAKER_00: But the way that like we can show mercy to others, and the way that God wants to show mercy to us, that just like any good father wants to pour out those amazing gifts to us if we're willing to receive it.
• 8:53
  SPEAKER_01: That's an amazing story.
• 8:55
  SPEAKER_01: That's just that's just warms my heart.
• 8:57
  SPEAKER_01: But that is what God's like.
• 8:59
  SPEAKER_01: It's so amazing that you know, He's loving, but there's also discipline.
• 9:04
  SPEAKER_01: And I think it's so important for fathers today to be that example of what God is to young kids, because then they they get an example of what God's really like.
• 9:16
  SPEAKER_01: And uh so many fathers are missing in homes today, and you know, there's there's such a lack of that, but um, all the things that you shared are just amazing.
• 9:26
  SPEAKER_01: And for fathers like you, that's just a blessing for children.
• 9:31
  SPEAKER_01: Thank you so much for sharing.
• 9:35
  SPEAKER_00: Thank you, it's my pleasure.
• 9:37
  SPEAKER_01: And hopefully, maybe we'll have you back again.
• 9:41
  SPEAKER_01: So thanks again.
• 9:43
  SPEAKER_00: Absolutely, thank you.