The 15 Essentials to Fatherhood

There’s no real order to these Essentials. I didn’t want to rank them, but there is some deliberateness in a few of them.

1. Loving
2. Balance
3. Toughness
4. Purity
5. Present
6. Diligence
7. Availability
8. Protection & Provision
9. Counselor
10. Loyalty
11. Teacher
12. Humility
13. Leadership
14. Plays
15. Spiritual Leader

Some of you can look to your own fathers as a model for many of these Essentials. Your experience was not too bad, with your dad growing up.

But what about those men who had bad fathers? Or those who didn’t have a father at all? My encouragement to you is the same for those of us who had decent dads…

For the Christian, look to God the Father! Look to His example, His love. Look to God for how he embodies each and every one of these Essentials. He d is the perfect model for each of these Essentials.

For the everyone though, we can  learn from those around us. Just coming here to a blog like this, you’re showing that you want to be a better father. Seek out others around you, especially the good fathers. But also partner with other dads just like you. Partner together to help each other out, in this journey.

In the coming weeks we’ll be looking closer at what each of these essentials are all about. Right now some may be vague or confusing. Don’t worry, I’ll do my best to help you understand what I mean.

I bet at least one, though, already jumps out to you. I’m sure that everyone one of use could readily describe how we or someone we know already is a model for one of those essentials, those character traits. Share it with us below!

Continue on to Part 4, which looks at how to take this list of 15 character traits and turn it into a creed; The Fatherhood Creed.