I'M JUST HERE TO BE DAD

EP43  THE NIGHTMARE THE DREAM I’ve said it before, but it’s worth revisiting… Imjustheretobedad.com SPOTIFY https://open.spotify.com/show/2SWCruaUKOx7gIkgr0p55a ApplePodcast https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/im-just-here-to-be-dad/id1805558740 IG https://www.instagram.com/imjustheretobedad/ FB https://www.facebook.com/IMJUSTHERETOBEDAD/ X https://x.com/justheretobedad Youtube https://www.youtu...

EP 42 “Fifteen years later, a single photograph still reminds me what it means to thrive in your space. I was a photographer then, that was my life. The camera was everything, the work was everything. Somewhere in those two decades behind the lens, I took a photo in the Everglades that I couldn't quite forget. Over fifteen years ago now, it was just a bird, a Purple Swamphen, exotic and beaut...

EP41 The imagination of my children, captivated by bigger-than-life replica dinosaurs; the awe in my children's eyes was something I’m glad I captured and experienced.  The beauty of adventure and the dreams the Dinosaurs metaphorically represent.  Once upon a dinoventure… Imjustheretobedad.com SPOTIFY https://open.spotify.com/show/2SWCruaUKOx7gIkgr0p55a ApplePodcast https://podcasts.apple.co...

Episode 40 “Worry is the program running underneath everything. It's the architecture we built without knowing we were building it. It whispers, it loops, it feeds itself. We have to hack the thinking that built it.  We have to hack the systems that keep it running.” Imjustheretobedad.com SPOTIFY https://open.spotify.com/show/2SWCruaUKOx7gIkgr0p55a ApplePodcast https://podcasts.apple.com/us/p...

The opportunity for a story to tell. The moment turns into a story they one day will tell to their children, peers, or friends. Even if it’s a story on repeat, they tell themselves, “Once upon a time, Dad said…”  Imjustheretobedad.com SPOTIFY https://open.spotify.com/show/2SWCruaUKOx7gIkgr0p55a ApplePodcast https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/im-just-here-to-be-dad/id1805558740 IG https://www.in...

Maybe just maybe you’re constant tendency to rewind replay moments of the past are rooted in what was once a small plant called can’t… Imjustheretobedad.com SPOTIFY https://open.spotify.com/show/2SWCruaUKOx7gIkgr0p55a ApplePodcast https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/im-just-here-to-be-dad/id1805558740 IG https://www.instagram.com/imjustheretobedad/ FB https://www.facebook.com/IMJUSTHERETOBEDAD/...

Welcome to Dad's Book Club The show in-between the show Let's keep you listening daily as each EP is written with care, attention, and detail.  While you wait for the next EP, enjoy Dad's book club, where we take quotes from books I'm currently reading or a book I pulled from the archives.  Let's find new books to read, learn, grow, and become better dads with each quote!...

“ …as a kid we navigate this world like a story book,  Everything is amplified, shadows become monsters, nosies we can see become fear of the unknown and that image is known in many different shapes and sizes. The stories we tell ourself only grow with time. They are real, very real yet as a man our perspective goes from victim to rescuer, hopeless to problem solver, pain to power.” You got this! ...

Whether it’s halftime of a game or  it’s the beach on a Thursday, mentally defeated, wanting to quit, but then you stop and think: “How do you want her to remember this?” We learn so much in the very little time we get to raise our children; her ability to find peace and happiness like a light switch is something I learn from every day. She can remind you that nothing matters but now. She forces D...

Whether you're on your lunch break, working straight through, or off today, not everything handed to you is meant to be preserved exactly as it was given.  Like the story: some inheritances, some moments, are meant to be rebuilt, sharpened, made new.  Our minds too. We teach through what we do.  Our kids inherit a living, breathing dad who's still capable of growth, still capable of pivo...

Our presence and the words we speak, the gift of the time we spend, the gift of the sacrifice, the gift of the action, the examples we set, and the lessons they learn without even knowing they entered the classroom. We pick up the shovel and dig with them; we do not add dirt to the process. You got this, Dad! Imjustheretobedad.com SPOTIFY https://open.spotify.com/show/2SWCruaUKOx7gIkgr0p55a AppleP...

The weariness that sets in comes from sustained, consistent effort over time. By definition far from weakness, it's simply a reminder of how hard we've been working, and how much weight we carry. Your normal is the thing they call ordinary — that's your superpower. The obstacles will vary. The weight will always be carried. I'm just here to be  You're just her to be Dad. Y...

It's a misplaced grace.  We extend grace freely to ourselves, and maybe to the people closest to us, but hand a building, a congregation, and a leader a short leash instead. Are you going to meet my needs, or am I walking?  That sounds selfish, because it is. The gospel is anything but.  So as I wrestle with this decision,  I have to ask myself the harder question: is this being shaped by my...

This Saturday, today on August 15th, I kept hearing the same question: “Dad, are we done yet?” And every time I heard it, I felt the temptation to answer from frustration instead of purpose. Because as dads, we know the feeling. We have the yard work, housework, car work, errands, repairs, workouts, business responsibilities, and the thousand small things that keep a family moving. Especially in t...

You created your own angles and found a way.  That’s one of the many super powers of Dad, we find a way when everybody thought it was impossible.  We paused, gathered ourselves and saw what others didn’t see, created an avenue for them to believe through our actions of first believing ourself, we found a way.  You got this Dad! Imjustheretobedad.com SPOTIFY https://open.spotify.com/show/2SWCruaUKO...

Every excuse is just a reason waiting to grow. We plant these scenes with our thoughts.  Sometimes we plant these scenes with our actions every moment of the day is a cause for you to find a way, and a reason to flee from the excuse and give yourself another chance. Happy Thursday! You got this Dad! Imjustheretobedad.com SPOTIFY https://open.spotify.com/show/2SWCruaUKOx7gIkgr0p55a IG https://www.i...

We can often leave our feet too quickly as Dads, from friendships to family, coworkers, or strangers, or our wife, our children see us leave our feet too quickly, and rather than seeing dad the superhero with a cape, they see an impatient rush to make a mistake rather than wait, stay on your feet and allow yourself to see your options.  As I said before, second chances are not guaranteed and are o...

Today, on this Tuesday, remember to be extraordinary in the normal, ordinary things you do. Never take it for granted — the consistency and the pressure you embrace, the business as usual, the everyday normal you. There's nothing normal about what you do. The superhero your kids see depends on your consistency, your normal. It's just a normal Tuesday. But with Dad, normal is never just n...

It's the language we speak, not just with our mouths, but the language of discovery, which is the language of love.  Gary Chapman calls it "love language." Really good book. T he core of it: how we give and receive love is unique to each of us. Love isn't just a feeling,  it's a skill, specifically the skill of learning someone else's language and choosing to speak it...

Red tie, white shirt, black pants. Children's choir singing that morning.  "I'm running for my life, I'm running for my life…" The smell of wooden pews, hair grease, cologne, and even a little liquor from the night before, depending on who said, "What's up, little man?"  The crackers and baby wine cups sat in a back room, anticipating their big moment like a...

HAPPY SATURDAY! No.  The most avoided word.  Terrifying to some, soul-crushing and emotionally hostage-holding for others.  The word "no" can feel like a gun to your head with nowhere to run. Yet no is more like a winning ticket, a ticket to the show, starring everything you need to do better, scene by scene, bit by bit, line by line. When you get to see everything you need to do better,...

Flashback Friday: The Tahoe, the Dream, and the Small Things That Mean Everything High school. Two teenagers madly in love, dreaming about the future. We talked about everything: who we'd become, how wonderful our family would be one day. We even dreamed down to the car we'd drive. One thing we knew for certain: we did not want a minivan. Maybe it was working in childcare for so long. Ma...

All the world's a stage, and the main character is the brave, vulnerable, depressed, hurt, distressed... you. There's a whole industry built off vulnerability, the dependence of men expressing their weakness, expressing everything that's holding them back.  There's an app for that. A book for that. An influencer, a conference, a place for your sorrow. I'm not knocking the...

These are the moments our children will remember. The moments our spouse will remember. Moments you can't capture on a cell phone, can't quite contextualize in a social media post. T They're so sacred, they write themselves over and over again, never letting you forget the moment in the middle. As we move through the middle of the week, however your week is going, however your sched...

No one claps for Tuesday.  There's no countdown-to-Friday excitement, no first-day-of-the-week adrenaline.  Just the quiet discipline of showing up again a little better, a little stronger, a little more efficient than yesterday. Imjustheretobedad.com SPOTIFY https://open.spotify.com/show/2SWCruaUKOx7gIkgr0p55a IG https://www.instagram.com/imjustheretobedad/ FB https://www.facebook.com/IMJUST...