Hey Dads,
Part of being a dad is also being the provider for your family. At times this is an easy thing to do, you go to work, you make money, and you come home. But what happens when what your heart tells you is important is in conflict with what you do to keep food on the table? Normally people will tell you there are two options, either follow your heart and let your family suffer, which of course we would never do. Or the more likely alternative is to stay were you are, do what must be done and sacrifice your own dreams for the good of your family.
While this may seem like a good idea, I see this as setting up a very dangerous president for our children. They see us giving up our dreams, and assume that when they grow up they must do the same. The idea of noble self-sacrifice is an age old tail, we see it in movies such as “It’s a Wonderful life”, and here about it at church on Sunday. We as men feel it is our job to give of who we are for our families, and in many respects this is true. Our families need us to be the stable rock, on which all their hopes and dreams are founded, the key words there is dreams. We tell our children to dream, and that they can be anything they want to be when they grow up; however we don’t take this advice to heart ourselves. We give up our dreams in order to make theirs happen, teaching our children that only children are allowed to dream, because grown ups don’t have dreams.
I see that when we tell our children to have dreams during their childhood, and then when they are old enough to get a job we tell that they have to pick something that will make them successful ( by the worlds standards, not theirs) we say “This is your job, now be the best you can at it.” We leave them no room to continue to dream. Sadly we ourselves have forgotten what it is like to dream, so we simply continue on in our lives secretly feeling like we are trapped with no escape.
So today I offer a new idea, the idea that there is a third choice, on that could change the way we as men not only teach our sons about being providers, but also gives use the chance to follow our own dreams. I propose that making our careers and our dreams one in the same we will become better providers to our families. By following our dreams and letting our highest thoughts about them guide us, we will not only become the successful providers that we would like to be, we will also be showing our sons that they don’t have to sacrifice the deepest dreams of their hearts, but can use them to create the job that they love. I guess that if we teach our son’s and daughters to follow their dreams and live by them, that our world would change dramatically.

A Fellow Father