“My grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness” (2 Corinthians 12:9). I’ve enjoyed the Bible in One Year reading plan from Alpha founder Nicky Gumbel. About this verse, he said, “His grace is not only amazing; it is sufficient. It is enough. I often quote this verse to God and remind him of his promise that his power is made perfect in my weakness.” One challenge I have as a father – and I’ve talked with hundreds of other dads who’d say the same – we try to father from our own power. We are trying to do the work of fatherhood from our own effort, energy and experience. We get tired. It’s like trying to fly by just flapping our arms ferociously. The reason it’s so exhausting is because we’re not meant to do it alone. We can’t be perfect, and we can’t ever “do enough”. We are not enough, but His grace is. Let’s rest in that and when we’re super tired, remind God of His own promise. He loves it when we talk back to Him…uh…with His own words!

7 Engaging Children’s Bible Study Curriculum: As a dad, you may not have thought much about children’s Bible study curriculum. But while it’s fine to trust church leadership with that choice, it’s also important for you to learn as much as you can about the curriculum your church is using—and what other options are available. You don’t have to be an expert, but what you learn just might help you at home and at church.

Romans 12: All You Need Is (the Right Kind of) Love: More than 50 years ago, the Beatles said all we needed was love. But 20 centuries before that, the apostle Paul challenged Christ followers to love one another with sincerity and honor. While the romantic notions of love are great, genuine, unselfish love is what sets godly men apart from the crowd and gives us the chance to be a part of something bigger than ourselves.

“In place of our exhaustion and spiritual fatigue, God will give us rest. All He asks is that we come to Him…that we spend a while thinking about Him, meditating on Him, talking to Him, listening in silence, occupying ourselves with Him – totally and thoroughly lost in the hiding place of His presence.”
– Chuck Swindoll

“No soul can be really at rest until it has given up all dependence on everything else and has been forced to depend on the Lord alone. As long as our expectation is from other things, nothing but disappointment awaits us.”
– Hannah Whitall Smith

“He who cannot rest, cannot work; he who cannot let go, cannot hold on; he who cannot find footing, cannot go forward.”
– Harry Emerson Fosdick

Stop flapping. Just for a minute, this week, consider where – as a father – you’re flapping your arms but not getting off the ground. Metaphorically speaking, that is. Cuz, if you’re actually flapping your arms a lot, we have other issues to discuss. Anyhow, think on it. Where are you trying to be more than you can be? To do more than you can do? To live on and father out of your own power? Turn it over to God and let his grace be sufficient for you.

Kent Evans
Author of Bring Your Hammer, co-founder of Manhood Journey

P.S. Was this Mountain Monday helpful? Tell me if you love it, hate it, or if there’s something you’d like in the next one.

Forward this to a dad you know who needs some encouragement.