My guys,

Spirits are high. College basketball on pretty much every day, warmer weather with more daylight, and zero traffic commuting to work this week since it’s Spring Break.

A thing of beauty.

-C

I could probably leave it with that quote and call it a day. It really does say it all.

What feels most pressing right now is how important it is to stand for something.

If we don’t anchor ourselves in the truth (yes, I’m talking about the truth of the Gospel), how can we expect to withstand the storms of this day and age? We will fall for anything. Point blank.

Men get hit from all angles at all times, and if we have no guiding north star, we will inevitably fall back to our default human nature - which is, well…human (and faulty).

My prayer for myself and for you, my fellow dads in the trenches, is that we would take up the mantle of standing for something.

We all admire people who have convictions and live from that place.

But if we don’t get clear on our own convictions and live them out, we’ll keep looking up to others instead of proudly looking in the mirror at ourselves.

I once heard this: “Kids don’t need a perfect father. They need a clear one.”

I’ll add one thing to that - they need a clear, kind, and sturdy one. (s/o Dr. Becky)

Be the man, husband, and father who knows what he believes, why he believes it, and can live it out in a clear, kind, and sturdy way.

Be someone whose convictions don’t change depending on who is in the room.

Give yourself, your wife, and your kids a foundation to stand on.

You got this.

Kids see and absorb everything around them (for better or worse).

A sobering thought, really.

But all roads lead back to this one truth: actions speak louder than words.

Yes, words are important, but if the actions don’t support the words, then the math won’t be mathin’. Real talk.

So do a little self-reflection this week.

Audit the things you currently stand for and the things you want to stand for (because none of us have fully arrived).

And audit them through the eyes of your kids.

Get in their world. Try to see life the way they see it, and let that be a helpful barometer for where you may need to change course.

What’d you think of this week’s newsletter? Hit ‘reply’ to this email and lemme know!

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See ya next week.