Spending Time With Your Dad: Why It Matters

This past weekend, I was able to travel to a Father-Daughter camp with my dad and sister. We've gone every July for the past five years, and it's always a blast. Three days away from civilization with each other, friends, and amazing activities... it's one of my favorite weekends out of the year.

The camp is designed for dads to spend time with their daughters and forge real relationships with them. It's run by a family up north, who have a passion for families, and especially the impact dads have on their children.

In the past, I have looked at this weekend as more like a fun vacation without my three brothers. My dad and I have a pretty strong relationship. We have inside jokes, talk all the time, and he's there to listen to what I'm going through, give me advice and protect me and my siblings no matter what. So, it's been easy for me to feel like I don't really need to build a relationship or be intentional about it.

But this year was different. Maybe it was the fact that time seemed to just fly by, or maybe it was that we were "lazy" with our days, or maybe it was merely that it was in the 70s all weekend (which was the nicest weather we've ever had!).

Either way, I realized how much I absolutely love spending time with my dad, and how I want to cherish every minute I have with him.

The camp provides chapel services in the mornings and in the evenings. This year, the theme from the speakers was on treasure seeking. They explained about treasure seeking in God's word and what a treasure it is to have a family. But one of the points they made really seemed to stick in my mind.

"You don't know how much time you're going to have with your dad," the speaker said, leaning over the podium. "It could be one more year, or it could be seven years. We just don't know."

I sat there with my journal, my mind racing as I turned over her words.

We aren't promised tomorrow. Whether you're twelve or eighteen, time stops for no one, and one day you will blink and see that the world changed without your permission, and reinvented itself before you were ready.

Which is why no matter what kind of relationship you have with your family, it is imperative that you are intentional with it.

Reader, no matter where you live, who you are, what school you go to or what your family looks like, your dad is one of the most influential people in your life.

He's known you since before you could walk, and he's watched you go through the most embarrassing, awkward and difficult stages of your life. And chances are, he loves you even more now than he did when you were born.

Forging a good relationship with your dad is one of the most meaningful and precious things in this world, and you will not regret it. I promise.

In scripture, God is repeatedly portrayed as a father. In 2nd Corinthains 1:3, Paul emphasizes God the Father: "Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of mercies and the God of all comfort."

Passages like these explain God as a Father, but they also paint a picture of our earthly fathers. Paul used language and metaphors his audience would understand, and so he described God as a father, knowing that his readers would understand the scene he was setting.

Our dads are not perfect like God. They are sinners, just like us. But just like how God is overwhelmed with love for His children and has compassion on them, so our dads love us fiercely and have compassion on us.

Shouldn't that make us want to run to our dads and rest in their embrace? How deep their love is for us, providing for their families day in and day out, and yet sometimes we don't prioritize our relationship with them like we should.

We're never going to be perfect, and we're never- no matter how hard we try- going to have an ideal relationship with our dads.

For us girls especially, there are some things that are just hard to talk to your dad about. Girl drama, online drama, and yes, even boy drama are a few things that come to mind. Sometimes dads just aren't the best with drama.

And that's okay.

Because I would bet anything that most of our dads are willing to try to be. Even if it's just listening while you talk, if you give them a chance to try, they might surprise even you.

Being intentional with your relationship doesn't always mean going out on elaborate daddy-daughter dates. Sometimes it's just the little things.

Telling him about your day at school. Asking him how his day at work was. Asking how you can pray for him. Telling him about your friends. Telling him about what you're excited for.

Just telling him things.

Readers, please just talk to your dads. If you give them a chance to enter in on your world, they will surprise you with how much they engage and are interested in your life.

God gave us dads for a reason. We don't have to carry things alone, because we always have a built in protector to talk to.

I cannot tell you how much joy it is to have my dad there for me when there's a rough patch in my life. Friendship struggles, sibling squabbles, anxiety.... anything I bring to him, he's there to support me. It is such a weight lifted to know that I can tell him anything and he'll listen. I don't have to be alone.

When I was younger, I got in the habit of telling my dad the latest "tea" in my friend group, which mainly revolved around who hypothetically liked who. While those discussions aren't as prevalent anymore, my dad still comes to ask me "so, did so-and-so ever tell so-and-so? How are things going there?" I laugh and roll my eyes, and joke with my mom that he's a matchmaker, but I still love it, because it shows that he's interested in my life, and he took the care to remember what I told him.

I don't have my driver's license yet, but I do have a job. Which means that 50% of the time, my dad takes me to work. I drive, he turns on some "grandpa rock" radio station, and we talk for the entire fifteen minutes it takes to get to the shop.

Someday, we won't be riding together anymore. Time will be scarcer to find. Maybe I'll be living somewhere else or working more hours, and we won't get to see each other every day.

Which is why I want to be as intentional as I can right now.

Dads are one of the most precious gifts, and sadly we take them for granted. This is my challenge to you, dear reader, to flip the script and make your relationship different. Don't be afraid. Talk to your dad. Be intentional.

And you might be shocked at just how wonderful it is. :)

As always, stay undistracted and keep an open mind. <3

Love,

-Mira