What the Best Fathers Already Know
Father's Day is one of those days that hits differently depending on where you are in life.
If your dad is still around, maybe you're figuring out what to get him, or you're just going to call him and hope that's enough. If you lost him, the day can be extra hard in a way that's hard to explain to people who haven't been there yet. If you are a dad, you're probably going to get a handmade card and spend the afternoon trying to sneak in a quick nine.
Wherever you land, I think Father's Day is worth slowing down for. Not just to celebrate the men who raised us, but to think about what kind of man we're trying to be.
The Part Nobody Tells You
When you become a dad, everyone warns you about the lack of sleep, the cost of daycare and the way your time stops being your own. What they don't always say is that it's going to show you yourself in ways nothing else will.
Your kids are going to watch how you handle losing. They're going to watch how you talk about yourself after a bad day. They're going to hear whether you apologize when you're wrong or just go quiet and wait for it to blow over. They notice all of it, and they're taking notes.
And most of us, if we're being honest, became more aware of our own habits the moment we had someone small enough to mirror them back at us.
There's a Better Father Than Any of Us
Here's what I keep coming back to, especially on a day like today.
Every good thing we do as dads, we learned it from somewhere. The patience we manage to pull out when we're running low. The grace we extend when our kids mess up. The way we show up even when we're tired. None of that originates with us.
It comes from a Father who modeled it first. One who doesn't keep a record of wrongs. Who runs toward you when you've been gone a long time, not to say I told you so, but just because you're back. Who forgives not seven times, but seventy times seven, because that's just who He is.
70x7 Is a Dad Number
Matthew 18:22 is the verse behind everything we do at 70X7. And the more I sit with it, the more I think it's one of the most fatherly verses in the whole book.
Because that's what good dads do. They keep forgiving. They don't hold the blowup at the breakfast table against you by dinner. They let you try again. They're still there on the back nine even after you've had the worst front nine of your life.
We built a golf brand around that idea because the course has a way of bringing it out. Four hours, no escape, and somewhere around the 12th hole you're either going to let the round go or you're going to carry it the rest of the way in. It's the same choice we make with our kids. The same one our Father makes with us. Every single day.
Happy Father's Day
To the guys who are doing the work, showing up, and trying to get it more right than wrong.
To the ones who had great dads and feel that loss deeply today.
To the ones who didn't have a great example and are out here building something better for their own kids.
You've got a Heavenly Father in your corner who has never once given up on you.
Now go make a tee time; you've earned it.