Top 5 Blog Posts of 2021

We’ve had a fun year publishing blog posts each week for you. We hope you’ve enjoyed the posts and found them helpful and encouraging to you as a dad.

Let’s take a look back in review of our most popular blog posts this year. Here are the top five blog posts of 2021.

#1: 7 Roles of a Father

Stephen Kendrick of the Kendrick Brothers takes the top spot as the most viewed post of 2021. He writes in 7 roles of a father: Earthly fathers have the power to affect how children think about God the Father. We think:

“If my earthly father loves and cares for me…then God loves and cares for me.”
“If my father means what he says, then God means what He says.”
“If my father would die for me, God would die for me.”

Sadly, this power earthly fathers have isn’t always on display in our homes. We need to set these roles in front of us as goals to model for our kids. Here are the 7 roles of a father.

7 roles of a father

#2: Responsibilities of a Father: Know How to Serve (and Constantly Improve)

Christopher Brown, President of National Fatherhood Initiative comes in a close second in our countdown of most-viewed blog posts. Brown talks about how you can assess your current level of service and find ways to improve.

He writes in responsibilities of a father: Here are three simple questions you can use to get yourself (or the dads you serve) started on an annual assessment.

What are my strengths as a dad that I should keep doing?
What are my challenges as a dad that I should seek to improve?
What advice can I use that can help me double down on my strengths or address my challenges?

Responsibilities of a father: know how to serve (and constantly improve)

#3: Dads and Daughters: How Dad Can Be a Daughter’s Hero

Writer and speaker Michelle Watson-Canfield writes about how a dad can be a daughter’s hero. She writes about her interview with Focus on the Family—how we explore the depth of the father/daughter relationship, offering encouragement to dads and practical ways to connect with daughters.

With stories from my ministry to dads as well as my own bond with my dad, I offer hope that you, too, can have a strong relationship with your daughter.

Dads and daughters: how dad can be a daughter’s hero

#4: Man Up > Research on the Importance of Fatherhood

Glenn Stanton writes about a Newsweek cover story on the importance of fatherhood week lamented the “man-problem” in America and did so as if the only problem facing the American male is lack of access to paternity leave from work.

Did lack of paternity leave prevent iconic television dads Andy Taylor or Heathcliff Huxtable (whose wife worked) from being good men? What about your own dad? Newsweek flubbed a wonderful opportunity to thoughtfully explore an important family and national issue. Attentive students of the family know the weakening of fatherhood is not new, nor does it center on access to paternal leave from work. It is about how a culture treasures and encourages fatherhood.

Man up: research on the importance of fatherhood

#5: 7 Ways to Make a Great Marriage

Mitch Temple recalls a wedding he officiated and talks about how to make a great marriage:

One of the neatest marriage ceremonies I have ever performed was on a pier extending out into Pensacola Bay in Northwest Florida. The weather was perfect. As a gentle, tropical breeze rippled in off the water and the sun sank into a calm, blue sea, this young couple vowed their hearts to each other. I’d met Jerry and Beth Anne at church. Jerry was a soda delivery driver who delivered 7 Up’s, Pepsi’s, and other refreshments to our church building. I had the chance to get to know Jerry by hanging around the vending machine each Thursday afternoon around three. We struck up a great friendship. Before long the young couple was coming to church regularly.