As parents we can do our best to plan teachable moments (like our recent trip to the Center for Civil and Human Rights), but sometimes the best ones come while paying attention to everyday life.  Here’s how my daughter Olivia recently inspired me to dare greatly while riding to swim practice yesterday.

For each of our four children, we’ve given a lot of attention to choosing a name that means something.  Not coincidentally, for each of them their name represented something special happening in our own lives during the particular season in which they were born.

Fatherhood is a process: you can’t separate the good from the bad. You simply need a purpose and a plan. In this effort, success is faithfulness to the process.

Olivia and I went to a cooking class this morning (per her request for our one on one activity). All in all, while she may not remember the conversation, she’ll definitely remember the experience. #definingmoments

Yesterday we witnessed history in more ways than one. Our family matriarch, my grandmother and Sloane’s great grandmother texted me after her birth: we are happy to have you join the ranks Sloane.  I love that language, it conjures up images of a warrior joining her team on the battlefield, and in many ways that’s exactly what this is.  

Funny thing about little kids, they don’t seem to worry about much.  Sometimes (all the times) I miss those days…

On vacation at least your mind can relax about your everyday to- do list.  But once vacation ends, it’s back to the often overwhelming real world, so it helps to have some coping mechanisms.

This time a year ago Samantha and I were facing the greatest challenge of our lives. Now God has redeemed the time with the blessing of another baby due in May. Through this experience we learned that it’s easy to trust God when things are going well. Try trusting him when they aren’t.   

The past is history. The future is a mystery. The present is a gift.

At the beginning of this year we made a commitment to start regularly volunteering together. My hope is that this creates a habit of social awareness for our daughters, that leads to leveraged leadership.