I just finished putting the finishing touches on my brides Christmas present. It’s a trip with a dear friend, an adventure, a little time away from the everyday. My heart was filling up with gratitude at thoughts of my wife and kiddos, so I thought I would write you Dads a little note as they sleep.

So much of my life is not my own. It belongs, in so many ways, to my wife and a group of blonde-haired babies. There are kids beyond lonely tonight. Scared for tomorrow as they were fearful of today. Christmas holds a reminder of what shouldn’t for too many. I am not so stupid to think that all Dad’s take away these thoughts and misgivings in children. Some Dads are the direct cause for this pain and anxiety in both their presence and their absence. But thank you to those of you who carry on and bear the burden of leading your family as a living sacrifice for the benefit of others.

My heart is filled with gratitude to all the father’s standing in the gap for their children. Not just tonight, putting together gifts or finding the creative way to be generous with their children in a time of financial crisis, but all the time. Giving up so much of what is possible to make so much possible for the little ones in your care. The vulnerable trust you and you are of such character that this trust rewards them with confidence and freedom. Those Dads who quietly lay their lives down for their families understand the quiet joy of seeing their children flourish. To look back on years of sacrifice and see its worth when one of yours shines, smiles, enjoys a quiet book, is flushed from playing hard, or falls fast asleep in your arms.

To be a good Dad is too be strong, unyielding, gracious, kind, and loving. Thanks to all of you Dads who when angry swallow their pride along with their tongues and who when calm correct and guide. My children play in your homes and in your children find good friends. So many kiddos today do not know a father, they’re raised in homes without Dads and often without the influence of any adult male. You Dads who stick it out and fight for their kids and fight for their marriages are not changing the world, you are by your very life propping it up. You’ve decided no matter the hardship or option of ease elsewhere – you’ll be there. The strong and present, not the weak and absent. You stand in the face of the culture that tells you men are some evil force holding down women, a useless trope of masculinity, a goofy fool good for sport and a cold beer, an animal driven by its base desires, yet you’re an anvil of example your family builds its life upon.

Tonight I hope you enjoy the quiet satisfaction of knowing that all are asleep in their beds and you are the living representative on earth of The Father. You’ve named them, you’re raising them, and by grace you’ll see your boys grow into the man you are and your daughters marry the sons of men like you.  The world tells you to self-actualize, self-orient, take care of yourself first, work on you, and this will make your problems lessen and you’ve decided to look all that crap straight in the eyes and carry on. Carry on working, carry on mending, carry on sacrificing, carry on forgiving, carry on placing your needs last in a long line. You carry on supporting those, you recognize, just like yourself are not worthy of support and it spurs you on all the more.  Love is a choice and I see it in the eyes of Dads every day.

Merry Christmas Dads. There is a Father who knows sacrifice and He is glorified by your sacrifice.

Be watchful, stand firm in the faith, act like men, be strong. Let all that you do be done in love.

1 Corinthians 16:13–14