Apr 9, 2020
dadAWESOME
We're on a mission to add LIFE to the dad life. We're passionate about helping dads live fully alive as they lead their kids to God's awesomeness. Thanks for helping us reach more dads by passing along these resources:
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Jon French
After over 20 years of ministry in the local church, Jon now leads at Convoy of Hope as the Church Relations Director. He's been married for 15 years Dori and has 3 kids.
Episode Notes
- 6:21 - A recent highlight moment. Kids being able to roll with the punches.
- 8:30 -
- 9:08 - “Frenches are Fighters.” We learn things in moments that affect us the rest of our lives.
- 9:40 - How to parent through a rare form of blood cancer. 1.5 yr cancer battle.
- 10:40 - Getting into the community through kids' sports.
- 11:25 - "One seed of doubt will give us 10-20x more fear and it can cripple us." 8 months of hardest known chemo treatment, full stem cell transplant, 21 day quarantine.
- 12:33 - We wanted to fight as a family. Sharing the levity of the situation but also not having them carry the full weight of the situation.
- 13:20 - “Frenches are Fighters. Frenches never quit.” The power of life and death is in the tongue.
- 13:53 - Kids need to know information. We try to shield or kids from the hurtful stuff but we need to pray and give discernment so we can let them in on the secrets [of our families.]
- 14:58 - Letting others and our kids into the process of pain makes it not just about us, allows our family and community to fight with us.
- 15:51 - The church came around and walked with them on this journey.
- 17:00 - God has seasons. It allows us to help others in the same fight.
- 18:20 - We all are walking through a situation out of our control. Are we choosing to be fighters? Who is fighting with us?
- 18:56 - How can dads be the head of our house? Set up connections ahead of time.
- 19:45 - Having foresight in lift to love others around us, then when crisis hits we can just continue what we’re doing.
- 20:06 - Pastor of 6 kids - how did you get such incredible kids? Every day spending 15 min with each kid.
- 20:31 - Giving 15 min/day to each kid. "We need to be building those every day small choices, that then lead up so that when the crisis hits we are already prepared."
- 21:00 - Ask and pray for discernment - where is our family going? What’s the core vision for our family and how do we get there?
- 21:25 - Listening to kids in crisis. They don’t need us to fix anything. How are they feeling?
- 22:00 - "You don’t just wake up one day and you’re a great dad. You don’t just wake up one day and you’re living your dream. It’s daily choices every day that get you there."
- 22:35 - "It’s time to put my cape on, because these kids need Superman.” - kids need a dad to love them and have fun with them.
- 23:52 - Convoy of Hope - giving generously to the cause of Covid-19 response
- 24:21 - Feeding 300,000 kids in 14 different countries, empowering women and teaching agriculture. Goal is to give 10 million meals given.
- 25:25 - Empowering the local church to support their communities
- 26:00 - Social currency is valuable - sharing Convoy of Hope supports the cause
- 26:27 - Creating a night-time routine to sleep. Reading a book to help take the focus off himself.
- 27:10 - “Are you willing to be generous in your time of distress?” - Thinking of others - who can I minister to?
- 28:15 - Getting our kids to buy in to the process of giving.
- 29:45 - We don’t need false humility. Humility is realizing how God made me and using it to the best of our ability.
- 30:30 - "Our awesomeness isn’t because we’re awesome, our awesomeness is because God created us to be awesome."
- 31:00 - There’s no such thing as balance, we have tension. The tighter we have tension, then the more we can balance. Need to have tension to be the most incredible we can be while still giving God the glory.
- 31:40 - Teaching his daughter to use her artistic gifts to the best of her ability because God gave her those gifts. God created the art so he could point back to him.
- 31:54 - "Keeping humility is saying 'I know who I am and I know who gave it to me and I’m going to use it to the best of my ability."
- 32:32 - Pride - “a false view of oneself."
- 33:20 - False humility can also be pride... We're still not seeing God how he created us
- 33:25 - "Humility is seeing how God created us and living in that"
- 33:54 - "I need to be who God created me to be at 100%. Not for me, but so god can get the glory"
- 34:40 - "Listen, dads. You are awesome. You are their only dad and they think you are the man"
- 36:13 - Praying promises over our kids
- 36:25 - "Our prayers and our words are the raw materials that our children build their lives with" Steven Steven Furtick
- 37:35 - Sticky statements that capture the promises of God over their kids
- 38:50 - Praying promises before bedtime
- 39:30 - If you didn't pray promises over your kids when they were little, do it NOW. It's not too late
- 41:04 - Start today. We're all a work in progress. Don't wait.
- 41:35 - Book - Draw The Circle by Mark Batterson
- 42:00 - "As for me and my house, we will serve the Lord" Joshua 24:14
- 43:00 - "Is your house serving the Lord? If it's not, you probably need to go and look at whether you are serving the Lord as the dad"
- 43:35 - "As I go, so goes my house"
- 44:15 - "Sometimes we need to "heat check" our homes... Is my house stressful? Is my home arguing? Always yelling? Then back up and ask what I'm doing. How I'm leading, my house will follow"
- 45:00 - God has placed an incredible weight and responsibility on us as dads
- 47:27 - Jon's prayer