Here's something to consider; choose five individuals you would consider really good friends and ask them to do you a Big favor. Make sure the group of friends is diverse enough from each other that they will not replicate each other's ideas, much less their personalities. Now tell them you want them to be such good friends that in the event that you die, you want them to help raise your children as a substitute parent. Their main task is to help influence your children in essentially the same way you would have by bringing to the table their unique perspective of life while still reflecting your presence and personality! If you can wrap your mind around that concept, you have the basic premise of a book I just read, The Council of Dads. A man who thinks he might die as a young man because of a terminal disease decided he wanted a group of dads to be ready to step up to fill his shoes should he not be around much longer. I highly recommend the book. There is little, if any, Christian influence, but there is a significant presence of Jewish spirituality and respect for the God of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob. That aside, the author tells his story with such transparency that you can hardly stop reading once you've begun. More than that, if you're a parent, but especially if you're a dad, it's must reading for the way(s) you get to see your own soul be challenged and even identified by the authors struggles with life, particularly the value of life. You will learn how not to overlook the obvious in your life or that of your children. Yes, it might even open your eyes to a better understanding of John 1:14. It will assist your spiritual muscles to better grasp the concept if not purpose of the incarnation. If you think this last statement is a little over the top, just read the book and then talk to me. Every dad ought to read this book, if for no other purpose than to learn how to be transparent with their children and their wife.

Jonathan Edwards was and is America’s greatest theologian. To know about Edwards is to understand that he was an exceptionally brilliant and gifted man. There has been written (literally) volumes about him including the preservation of a multitude of his books and correspondence. If you are familiar with this godly giant of our faith, you are aware that one of the most intriguing elements of Edward’s life is the series of resolutions he recorded (70 of them) by which he wanted to monitor his life’s testimony. He purposed to read them through at least once a week. But as remarkable as these resolutions are and the value they played in Edward’s life, they pale against the humility that Jonathan experienced as he tried to live by them. Here is a portion of his personal concerns written in his journal, January 12, 1732: …I have been before God, and have given myself, all that I am and have, to God; so that I am not, in any respect, my own. I can challenge no right in this understanding, this will, these affections, which are in me. Neither have I any right to this body, or any of its members—no right to this tongue, these hands, these feet; no right to these senses, these eyes, these ears, this smell, or this taste. I have given myself clear away, and have not retained any thing as my own…I have been this morning to Him, and told Him, that I gave myself wholly to him. I have given every power to Him; so that, for the future, I’ll challenge no right in myself, in no respect whatever…I have this morning told Him that I did take Him for my whole portion and felicity, looking on nothing else as any part of my happiness, nor acting as if it were; and [take] His law, for the constant rule of my obedience; and would fight with all my might against the world, the flesh, and the devil, to the end of my life; and that I did believe in Jesus Christ, and did receive Him as a Prince and Savior; and that I would adhere to the faith and obedience of the gospel, however hazardous and difficult the confession and practice of it may be. (Taken from, The Unwavering Resolve of Jonathan Edwards, Steven J. Lawson)