Dadication

 Dadication, I'm not sure if that is a real word, but if not it sure should be. In my dictionary the definition of dadication would be, look up the word dedication and combine it's definition with the word dad and you've got it, dadication. Dedication, committing yourself to something and then sticking to it. So, if we apply the word dad to that you'd end up with something like "a man who commits his life to something, his family, and then sticks to it." In society today, that lack of commitment is taking a toil on our families, to the point that if men overall don't pick up their slack, our children's children will definitely be paying the price for our negligence. 

Before we go any further, I want to make clear that I'm not lessening the role of a mother, but really in way too many homes, the mother is the one providing the bulk of the parenting already. Today's FTM is meant to get men to man up and do what they were placed here on earth to do. It isn't just the men who abandon their families in search of something "better", this also applies to men that are living with their families, but their influence or presence is almost transparent. Gone fishing would be a pretty good way to describe a bunch of dads. Gone fishing, gone hunting, gone golfing, gone playing something or with someone, but the key word is "gone". This term dadication speaks to the idea that once you are a dad you don't get to pick and choose where your focus and attention should go, it goes directly to your family. Remember our definition? Committing to something and then sticking to it. 

When you decided to get married, you committed to love your spouse through thick and thin, sickness and in health, till death do us part. That means you don't get to check out just because you aren't "happy". Get happy, just like you were the day you got married. You loved her enough to say you would commit to her for life, so set self to the side and think about your commitment to make things work and do it. What about your commitment to your children? Men, you don't get to have children and automatically get the right to be called dad. You earn that title through your commitment to your wife and your children, dadication. Show up at the ballgame, be in the front row at the school play, apply correction when they turn the wrong direction, and support your kids when they fall or when they reach the top of the mountain. Be the dad our Heavenly Father showed us how to be. 

God is committed to us, He was, He is, and He always will be. God's commitment is on display to us through the sacrifice He made allowing His only Son, Jesus, to be crucified on Calvary's cross. God's commitment, even when it would take the life of his son, was so strong that he gave us the true definition of the word dadication. It was hard, no it was gut wrenching, to allow Jesus to be tortured, humiliated, and then hung on a cross to die, all so we could have a path to being saved. It would have been easy for God  to have said, "This is asking too much so I'm checking out before it falls on me.", but he didn't do that. Instead, God stayed committed to Jesus and lifted Him from the grave, and God is committed to each of us in just the same way. If God is committed to each of us, then how should we pay him back for His commitment?

Teach your child or children to have a strong work ethic, give them your faith and assure them that they shouldn't be a Sunday only Christian, be at the table for supper, and be there to help your child with homework and projects. Don't place priority on sports, hobbies, or your wants, stick to teaching the lessons that you have learned to your children, and support them with guidance, correction, and yes even discipline. Be the man you signed up to be when you had a child. "Train up a child in the way he should go, and when he is old he will not depart from it." Proverbs 22:6. The key is that if you are going to train up a child, you have to be there with that child. Don't misplace your responsibilities, and don't even start to think that you don't have responsibilities, dadication. What if God would have said, "Well, they'll be alright without me, I'll check in on them once a month." Bottom line, God created man and He has committed to stick with us whether we choose right or if we steer in the wrong direction. He loves us in spite of our sin and waits on us to turn from our sins and turn towards Him. Dadication. 

My challenge to dads everywhere, you made a commitment to your wife and to your family stick to it! Be the picture in the dictionary beside the word dadication. It is the most important thing you will do in your life, and the investment of the time you commit will pay the best dividends possible!

Coach Carter