God is a Dad

We introduce a new format called "Am I a Terrible Parent?" where one of them asks if something they do with their kids makes them terrible parents. On this week's show Dan shares his policy of sequestering his children in their rooms once they've reached their screen time quota. This leads to a comparison of our children's obsession with screens, utilizing video games as a motivational tool, and the challenges of a creating a gaming free home in 2019.

We break down the biggest event in Christian music history: Kanye West's new album "Jesus is King." There's a lot of angles to cover here: the divided Christian response, what it means for the future of Christian music, the best tracks, and where this album ranks among the rest of Kanye's music. Whether or not you are huge Kanye fans like us, this is definitely a story worth talking about.

About half of all kids on earth are girls (statistics level: 1,000), and the challenges they have faced throughout history are numerous. Things are a lot better than they used to be for girls, but we've still got a ways to go. To help us think through what steps we can take as parents to raise girls well we bring in Ashley and Mandy from Women of the Church Podcast to give us some historical insight into impactful women of the past. Women of the Church (check them out!) Website Instagram...

We tackle the holiday that makes Christians the most nervous, but is there anything to be afraid of? What are the historical roots of Halloween, and does it even matter? What does God think about Halloween? Is scary stuff inherently evil? Connect with us: Leave a review Instagram (@godisadadpodcast) Facebook (https://facebook.com/godisadad/) Website (https://godisadad.wixsite.com/podcast)

We all know we are supposed to lead our kids, but what does "leadership" actually mean? With so many different leadership types and methods displayed in society and culture, it's crucial we distinguish between the world's version of leadership and God's. To help us wade through this topic, Justin hangs out with Chris Cirullo of Man on Mission podcast to try and differentiate between cultural leadership vs. kingdom leadership and how that affects the approach we take with our kids. Connect...

The guys follow up on their conversation about Violence by asking how much God "helicopters" vs. allows us to encounter difficult/traumatizing experiences in life. Then they break down the recently released video from the Sandy Hook Promise "Back-to-School Essentials" and discuss how the reality of school shootings affects our perspective on violence. Sandy Hook Promise: "Back-to-School Essentials" https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=b5ykNZl9mTQ Connect with us: Leave a review Instagram...

For as long as violent media has existed, parents have wondered: is it OK to let my kids see/hear/read/watch this? Will it cause them to be violent? Will it traumatize them in some way? Will they think violence is normal/good/appropriate behavior? These are critical questions to answer that, like most questions, have no universal answer for every family or every child. Listen in as we talk through how our families think about violence, we hope it sparks intentional thoughts and conversations...

Back this week with the fun part of our conversation with Laura and Emily from Risen Motherhood (the podcast AND the new book). They begin every episode with the statement "Motherhood is hard," so we thought we'd get them to dig deeper into what that really means. Is parenting actually hard, or do we make it hard? A friendly debate ensues and go figure, when you listen to people who think differently than you, sometimes you learn things. Check out more from Risen Motherhood: Buy the book...

We "know" the gospel means salvation in the eternal sense, but what does it do for us in the meantime?For such an important question we had to bring in the heavy hitters Laura and Emily from Risen Motherhood to help us sort through all the implications the Good News has for us as parents. Fortunately for us they wrote an entire book on the topic so they've got a lot of insight. The deeper our understanding of the gospel goes the more we realize how all encompassing this "good news" actually...

Beer, wine, and spirits. To some they are the start of a great night, to others they are a sure fire sign of darkness and moral decline. It gets even trickier when you throw children and legal drinking ages into the mix... What does God think about alcohol? Is it a good idea for kids to be around it? How do we define drunkenness? What ages is it OK for kids to start drinking? We tackle these questions and more while, as always, our goal isn't to tell you what the "right" answers are, but...

Profanity: the timeless linguistic art of arranging letters into words inappropriate in public and off limits to kids. What does God think of swear words? How much do we try to avoid our kids coming into contact with them, or can we? How important is it for our kids to censor their own language? Likely to be our most controversial episode to date, so buckle up and put on your non-judgmental hats (or don't, up to you). Ways to connect: Leave us a Review Instagram (@godisadadpodcast) Facebook...

Who loves coffee? Dumb question, everyone loves coffee. But if you'd like to love coffee even more here's some advice from our resident connoisseur (Jake) to get even more enjoyment out of your daily cup of joe. He breaks it down from the most basic to the highest level, no matter how serious you are about coffee there's something here for you. Cheers to more energy for the parents. Products mentioned during the episode (not sponsored lol): Kalita Wave Aeropress Burr Grinder Ways to connect:...

This is not a revolutionary observation, but parenting can be tiring. Also not breaking news: it's easier to parent our kids well when we are not tired. Are you seeing what I'm seeing here? In this episode we try to break the vicious cycle of parenting and fatigue. How can we have more energy for our kids? Is coffee the answer? Does it even matter? Listen up and (try to) get energized. Ways to connect: Leave us a Review Instagram (@godisadadpodcast) Facebook (https://facebook.com/godisadad/)...

We bring back the Moms for their second episode to cover a topic many Moms can relate to (and some Dad's too!): Mom guilt (Or maybe we'll just call it parent guilt). Do you ever have the feeling like you never measure up as parent? Or that you are constantly letting your kids down? We get into the nitty gritty of all those feelings and process through a healthier way to think about ourselves and our work as parents. Even if you can't relate to this there's still lots here to help you...

We pick up both conversations from last week's episode (listen to that one first if you haven't), first by asking the question how do we proceed when we our ambition is directed at something important, but with impure motivations, at least partially. Then at (26:30) Dan lays out his case for why Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse usurps The Dark Knight as the greatest superhero movie of all time. Ways to connect: Leave us a Review Instagram (@godisadadpodcast) Facebook...

It seems like there's always too many things in life to juggle: family, work, church, social life, school, plus any side hustles you have going on. Not only that but, especially in western cultures, the expectation often seems to be nothing less than excellence in every aspect of life, which sounds great but how do we know when it's all too much? Ultimately the question comes down to where does God want our ambitions directed? With so many noble pursuits pulling us in different directions...

Our darkest episode to date! Some unresolved health issues are causing Justin to ask a lot of the classic questions we often ask when we suffer and enlists Jake and Dan to help him process through them. How do we find our hope, peace, and joy in God alone? What do we do if God doesn't feel "real" and "present"? Does God kill people? Can we ever be CERTAIN about what happens after life on earth? What does faith the face of death look like? How should we feel about death? We don't answer all...

Continuing off of last weeks conversation, we get into what we can do as parents to give our kids every reason to believe our love for them is unconditional. Nothing, not their good choices, bad choices, non choices, or sibling's choices can affect our love and acceptance of them, but this doesn't always come across. We need to work extra hard to make sure nothing gets lost in translation. Then at 29:30 we close out the episode with a friendly debate over whether the LOTR books are boring...

We're always on the lookout for intriguing questions to ask so we pull in our longtime friend Kent to throw a couple good ones our way. Should we tell our kids we're proud of them? If so does that create a dynamic of conditional love/approval? What about saying we're disappointed in them? Does that communicate shame and create a performance based relationship? Of course, the question really comes down to is God proud of or disappointed in us? Ways to connect: Leave us a Review Instagram...

All it takes is one bad thing happening to us to remind us how helpless we are and tempt us into fear. As children we deal with this fear by (ideally) putting our faith in our parents to take care of everything that could go wrong. Then as adults we often construct in our minds this little world that we feel relatively safe and secure in, but life has a way of knocking over our Jenga tower leaving us longing for something certain in this life. The goal of course is to replace the child-like...