It had been a great weekend. It was just she and her dad, and other teenage daughters with their dads. They had all enjoyed the three study sessions with interspersed fun activities like high-ropes, zip-line, laser-tag in the woods and a game of kickball. The study sessions were engaging and each session was followed by structured one-on-one father-daughter discussion time. As the weekend wrapped up, all the fathers and daughters walked down to an outside chapel area.
I have had a number of requests the last few years for an up to date list of good resources for dads and moms to reference when talking with kids of all ages about sexuality and healthy relationships. Today it is very important to be tech savvy enough to stay on top of what is happening on social media and be vulnerable enough to start the dialogue early and often with the kids about sexuality. And remember, as Paul Brown said in his recent talk, it is not a battle between parents and kids; it is a battle of family against the world.
For nearly three years, Faithful Fathering has been on the LTAP journey with other church and community leaders. LTAP is short for “Let’s Talk About Porn” – there have been four LTAP conferences across the Houston area reaching 2500 dads, moms and students. From those events, the following resource list has been developed ...read on
Thanksgiving always carries a special significance for Faithful Fathering as we give thanks to our Lord for you and the opportunities granted through your support over this past year, our seventeenth year to encourage and equip dads to be faithful fathers. Please read on for a snapshot of where FF has been, where the Lord has us and where we feel He is leading us: ...read on
It is one of my favorite movie scenes – In Braveheart, William Wallace rides up on a horse to address the troops. The men are looking across the field at an English army that greatly outnumbers them and some express an unwillingness to fight. Wallace says, “Aye, you can return to your homes and live but what kind of life will it be without freedom?” He proceeded to call out to the “Sons of Scotland!” He said, “You fight today as free men against an enemy that wants to take our freedom!”
Freedom to be sexually active without the fear of getting pregnant was a new dimension for women when “the pill” was legalized for unmarried women in the late 1960’s. There was a new freedom introduced to young men as well, freedom of responsibility. When an unexpected pregnancy did happen, instead of taking responsibility as a man, fingers were often pointed at the woman for not taking “the pill” – Memories of Adam in the Garden come to mind, “The woman You put here with me …” (Genesis 3:12)
It may be counter-cultural today to say that dads and moms are important. Each brings a very unique dimension to the parenting equation that influences a child’s ability to navigate through life. Men and women have been lured in to thinking they are mutually interchangeable but they are not. Recent research in psychology, neuroscience and epigenetics validates what has been common sense for previous generations - that moms and dads are uniquely important beyond the obvious reasons.
In her book, “Being There: Why Prioritizing Motherhood in the First Three Years Matters” psychoanalyst Erica Komisar says ...read on
The numbers reflect that game attendance is down and television viewership is off significantly. It appears the National Football League is suffering from customer pushback – the product that was simply a game between two teams expanded to a platform for political opinion. What team owners allow their employees to do on company time is up to them. In turn, continued support for the respective teams is up to the fans and what they will tolerate at game time. That is the power of the consumer.
Imagine if dads in mass decided to not tolerate something in an arena that mattered, to say, “Enough is enough!” to ...read on
The TALK is probably remembered as one of the most awkward discussions ever had with your parents. At fourteen or fifteen, the terminology used was seen as strange and the conversation was uncomfortable. In summary, sex was conveyed as dirty and dangerous so it was important to save it until marriage.
Today, statistics show that teenagers want to talk with their parents about sex but dads and moms are either too busy, do not want to “go there” or are struggling with clarity on the subject themselves. The TALK must be ...read on
“One-on-one time with my daughter? She does not even want to be in the same room with me!” But in response to a challenge presented to all the dads participating in the study, Joe agreed to at least ask his daughter out on a date. That in itself was a big step because there were about twenty men in the study that would be holding him accountable. The bottom line was that he thought she would surely say ‘No’ and he would have to face rejection again. No man likes rejection be it a high school date or a date with his daughter.
The following week, the dads provided a debrief of the one-on-one time with their kids. Joe stepped forward and said, “When I asked my daughter if she would go out ...read on
There were three significant spiritual experiences in my life twenty-plus years ago: First was the call to ministry for dads in January, 1996, that would manifest into the founding of Faithful Fathering in 2000; Second was a “Walk to Emmaus” retreat weekend in February, 1997; and then there was Promise Keepers’ “Stand in the Gap”, a sacred assembly of men on the Mall in Washington D.C., October 4th, 1997.
What kind of impact could over a million men have by ...read on