I recently took my daughter on a date and it was incredible. Not only was it exactly what she needed but it helped me clearly see how fascinating she is. Your children need your focused, isolated presence and you need theirs. I want to share four things you should stay mindful of, as a dad, in order to know when your child needs one on one time with you and how to go about it.

We have an incredible opportunity with fatherhood and we should desire to do the best we can. In order to do the best we can, we need to understand what our children are going through and where they are in terms of their development. Dr. Jim Littles joins me to discuss the various domains and phases of development so you can have plans and expectations best suited for your children.

It's November! A time when many people aim to express their gratitude and thankfulness. I want you to live life as a thankful man but today I want you to focus your thankfulness. Why are you thankful to be a dad? I'm sharing three of my reason why I am thankful for fatherhood to give you a head start. Listen, reflect, express your thankfulness for fatherhood, and come up with a reason of your own.

As Christian fathers, we can look at the world and culture and see so much that we disagree with. There are a number of things that are being promoted that we do not want our children to see. We can speak up and, in some cases, need to speak up but our focus must remain on our children. Our responsibility as fathers is less about combatting the culture and more about raising our children. We do not get to blame the culture for how our children end up. I have two questions I want to ask you that you need to really think about and answer.

Raising children is not the easiest thing to do and while being a dad is a privilege and fulfilling, there is still a high demand on us. You have to lead and provide guidance but does your leadership bring condemnation or grace? Are you most concerned with your control or the cultivation of your child's uniqueness? I want to encourage and challenge you to think about your approach to fatherhood and consider if grace is present. If you struggle to see grace in your fathering, your children likely don't see it at all. I'll talk about being reactive and proactive with grace, and give you questions you need to start asking yourself as a dad.

As dads, we are not designed to function as dictators where whatever we say goes and our kids have to blindly and mindlessly obey us. We are supposed to be leaders who serve and teach our children so they can grow and find success in their lives. Our kids have questions as to why things happen or work the way that they do. We need to not only let them ask "why?" but we need to encourage it. Also, we need to answer the question when they ask it. "I told you so" does not cut it either. As fathers, we should be providing logical explanations for our children so that they can understand the "why." If we don't do it, someone else will.

Too many fathers look back at their lives and have regrets. Too many young dads are on the path to have regrets. You do not have to have regrets. I'm going to share a way to eliminate regret from your life and instead achieve the relationship that you desire to have with your children. You can either allow your mistakes to haunt you forever or you can allow them to be stepping stones to the place you want to go. 

Expectations as a dad can be difficult because life with kids is always a mystery. I hope to provide a few friendly reminders about expectations. First, you are not lowering your expectations when you become a dad. Second, you don't get rid of all expectations because kids can be crazy. Lastly, I'd like to recommend what I believe is a better way to form your expectations.

Brad Lea, a successful businessman and podcast host, stated that money makes you a better dad. That is a bold claim, but is it true? I'll provide some context, explain his logic, and give you my take on the topic.

Plus, here is the link for my shameless plug: https://www.patreon.com/AnthonyVandagriff

I recently took a trip to Washington D.C. and had two key subjects that relate to dads become refreshed in my mind: identity and mission. My goal is not just to remind you of these components but to reignite a passion within you to embrace who you are as a man and to strive with excellence to fulfill the mission you have as a father. Dads are vitals and we need to start living like we believe that to be true.