{"id":3570,"date":"2017-07-26T17:45:35","date_gmt":"2017-07-26T17:45:35","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/abidingfathers.org\/?p=854"},"modified":"2021-01-20T07:25:31","modified_gmt":"2021-01-20T13:25:31","slug":"dear-fathers","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/abidingfathers.org\/dear-fathers\/","title":{"rendered":"Dear Fathers"},"content":{"rendered":"

Our struggles<\/h3>\n

Quite a bit of weight has been put upon your shoulders, hasn\u2019t it? Why don\u2019t you lay your burdens down, because the truth of the matter is, at some point, you were going to drop them anyways.<\/p>\n

Falling is inevitable; it\u2019s what makes us human: our inability to do everything perfect.<\/p>\n

So, when you fall face first into the ground as you\u2019re raising your son or daughter, don\u2019t be disheartened but don\u2019t pretend it didn\u2019t happen either. It\u2019s okay to struggle. Our struggles form our characters and make us stronger than we were before. It has long been taught that the strength of a man lies in his ability to maintain an air of perfection, around his family, his job, his community, but as we\u2019ve come to find out, strength comes from when we admit we\u2019ve messed up. Embrace the areas of your life that feel broken or sub par so that you can begin to repair and develop them. Your child won\u2019t mind walking beside you through it all.<\/p>\n

Think about the times you struggled with your own father. Did he own up to his own mistakes and shortcomings or did he hide them? Which would you prefer?<\/p>\n

Don’t hide your weaknesses<\/h3>\n

Hiding our weaknesses can become incredibly toxic. Think about how hard it is to reason with or help someone who won\u2019t admit their wrongs. Communication becomes strained and almost impossible because the other person has to walk on tiptoes wondering when they\u2019ll accidentally set off a landmine when all they want to do is love and encourage you.<\/p>\n

So, give yourself a break. Not to shy away from responsibility or avoid accountability but to remember that you\u2019re human; to allow honesty and humility to fill your life so that you can better love your child, your spouse, and yourself.<\/p>\n

\"Picture<\/a>Megan Freeman<\/a>
\nBe The Dad Movement contributor<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Our struggles Quite a bit of weight has been put upon your shoulders, hasn\u2019t it? Why don\u2019t you lay your burdens down, because the truth of the matter is, at […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":11,"featured_media":1291,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"inline_featured_image":false,"site-sidebar-layout":"default","site-content-layout":"default","ast-site-content-layout":"","site-content-style":"default","site-sidebar-style":"default","ast-global-header-display":"","ast-banner-title-visibility":"","ast-main-header-display":"","ast-hfb-above-header-display":"","ast-hfb-below-header-display":"","ast-hfb-mobile-header-display":"","site-post-title":"","ast-breadcrumbs-content":"","ast-featured-img":"","footer-sml-layout":"","theme-transparent-header-meta":"default","adv-header-id-meta":"","stick-header-meta":"","header-above-stick-meta":"","header-main-stick-meta":"","header-below-stick-meta":"","astra-migrate-meta-layouts":"default","ast-page-background-enabled":"default","ast-page-background-meta":{"desktop":{"background-color":"","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-gradient":""},"tablet":{"background-color":"","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-gradient":""},"mobile":{"background-color":"","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-gradient":""}},"ast-content-background-meta":{"desktop":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-5)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-gradient":""},"tablet":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-5)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-gradient":""},"mobile":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-5)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-gradient":""}},"_price":"","_stock":"","_tribe_ticket_header":"","_tribe_default_ticket_provider":"","_tribe_ticket_capacity":"0","_ticket_start_date":"","_ticket_end_date":"","_tribe_ticket_show_description":"","_tribe_ticket_show_not_going":false,"_tribe_ticket_use_global_stock":"","_tribe_ticket_global_stock_level":"","_global_stock_mode":"","_global_stock_cap":"","_tribe_rsvp_for_event":"","_tribe_ticket_going_count":"","_tribe_ticket_not_going_count":"","_tribe_tickets_list":"[]","_tribe_ticket_has_attendee_info_fields":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[112,107],"tags":[119,128],"post_template_type":[237],"pillar":[99],"study_type":[],"acf":[],"ticketed":false,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/abidingfathers.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3570"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/abidingfathers.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/abidingfathers.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/abidingfathers.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/11"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/abidingfathers.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=3570"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/abidingfathers.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3570\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/abidingfathers.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/1291"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/abidingfathers.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=3570"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/abidingfathers.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=3570"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/abidingfathers.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=3570"},{"taxonomy":"post_template_type","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/abidingfathers.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/post_template_type?post=3570"},{"taxonomy":"pillar","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/abidingfathers.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pillar?post=3570"},{"taxonomy":"study_type","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/abidingfathers.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/study_type?post=3570"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}