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, u…

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 …

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 t…

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 reviewInstagram (@godisadadpodcast)Facebook (https://facebook.com/godisadad/)Website (h…

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 podcas…

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 violen…

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 fa…

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 fi…

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…

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 …

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, s…

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. Che…

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? …

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 thro…

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 Kni…

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? U…

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 C…

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 m…

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 re…

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 …

Since we know very little about adopting children we thought it would be wise to bring in a bona-fide expert: our friend Natalie who (along with her husband) have grown their family exclusively through adoption. Now a family of four, they adopted two children domestically and two internationally from the Democratic Republic of Congo. In addition to…

Is loyalty a value worth instilling in your children? Is God loyal? What does "loyalty" even mean? These questions might be trickier than they seem...For example, what happens when your child's friends are doing something wrong and they appeal to a sense of loyalty to keep them from telling someone? Should they betray their friends or stick with th…

Who hates Disney world? Well, apparently both Dan and Jake thought they did...without actually going. With Dan returning from a recent trip to the Magical Kingdom, we find the magic of Disney fully took hold as he's apparently been fully converted. He shares about how all of his expectations were exceeded as well as some helpful tips on maximizing …

Spanking. The increasingly scrutinized discipline practice that some view as nothing less than psychologically traumatizing, while others would point out: "whoever spares the rod hates their children." Suffice it to say there's a lot to unpack here. We start by sharing our experiences with spanking as kids, discuss our family's current spanking pol…

We've been looking forward to this one, only hearing us Dad's talk about raising our kids is like reading the first half of a book, it's can be good and all but getting the whole thing is much better. They give their perspective on romance after kids and hit on some much bigger issues than chocolate and flowers like arguing in front of your kids, t…

It's that time of year again...when couples try and muster up the energy to show how much they care about each other (oh and Hallmark ensures they make some money in February). In honor of this made-up holiday, we compare the state of romance in our marriages, our plans for Valentines Day, and ask ourselves why God created the desire for the romant…

Continuing off of last weeks conversation (Why Even Discipline Your Kids?) we get a lot more practical and compare our family's methods of discipline. Definitely not a "How To" segment (every family is different), we get into both things that have worked for us and the ways we most often mess it up.Then at the (35:17) mark we switch things up from …

Discipline is such a crucial part of parenting and, arguably, the aspect containing the greatest amount of landmines. Children's disobedience can frustrate, exhaust, and confound even the wisest and most patient parent. Suffice it to say: it's easy to make mistakes in this area...And that's OK! We're all just here to get better, so we start by focu…

With Dan off in Disney World, we sub in pastor and author Drew Meyer to talk about the power of prayer in family life. If you ever wonder about:how to stoke a passion for prayer in you childrenhow to maintain faith when praying for big things in your familyhow to answer the big "why" questions of Godhow to foster an family dynamic where everyone en…

The more connected to and hungry for God we are the better parents we will be, full stop. But how do we cultivate and preserve a sense of wonder and longing for more of God? The guys wrestle with this question and discuss the role community and the Bible play in connection with God. Some memorable soundbites from the episode: "don't pray for a week…

If you have tried a New Years Resolution in recent years then you are also likely someone who has failed at your New Years Resolution in recent years. That's about to change.Most people approach their resolutions with a mindset that destines them to fail, don't let that happen to you again by listening to this episode where they guys discuss their …

The guys go full on Christmas with this one. First they start out with some amusing developments on their family's Santa policy, followed by a brainstorming session on how they can enhance the Christmas experience for their kids. They start by answering the question of how to best incorporate their kids into developing traditions then give their ta…

We get into the Christmas spirit by debating the value of incorporating Santa as a part of your family's holiday experience. Does Santa steal Jesus' thunder? Will kids become jaded when they find out he's not real?This naturally leads into the question of if/when lying to your kids is good and, as usual, they try to answer that question by asking w…

As a follow up to the conversation last week (Is God A Fun Guy?), the guys talk about the implications God being fun has on the attitudes and decisions we make as parents. They get into the questions: how much fun is too much fun, how to have more fun in a life filled with the demands of family/parenting/marriage, and why having fun makes you a bet…

You would be hard pressed to find a more universal pursuit worldwide than fun (maybe good food)...but just how fun is God? Typically "fun" is not one of the first few adjectives that comes to mind when we think about God, but what He has to say about it directly impacts how we think about it. To explore the question the guys dive into discussing th…

How do we assess how well we are doing as parents? There are a lot of things involved in being a good Mom/Dad, but if we're trying to keep things as simple as possible what does it boil down to? The guys share what makes them feel like good parents and what is it about God that makes Him the best at it. Then they share some of the struggles they ha…

The guys continue their conversation about developing a Godly, healthy view of emotions in their families. They start by asking the question "what does God think of emotions?" and continue discussing whether withholding negative emotions to protect your spouse is helpful. Then at the (22:00) minute mark they share what movies or music have made the…

What is the purpose/value of emotions? Being labeled "emotional" often comes with a negative connotation, but is this the right way to view emotions? The guys discuss their perspectives and how they process emotions and then compare the ways they are helping their kids develop into emotionally healthy people. Intro music- "As Colourful as Ever" by …

Is parenting hard, or do we sometimes make it hard? As a follow up to last episode, the guys approach the "is parenting hard?" question from a different angle, namely how do our attitudes and perspectives make parenting harder than it has to be. Intro music- "As Colourful as Ever" by Broke for Free from FMA under CC BY 3.0 Closing music- "Take your…

Is parenting hard, or do we make it hard? The guys discuss which parts of parenting they think are actually "hard," followed by a lively debate over the best Marvel movie to date (23:37). Intro music- "As Colourful as Ever" by Broke for Free from FMA under CC BY 3.0 Closing music- "Take your Chances" by OpVious from FMA under CC-BY-NC-ND 4.0…

What does God think about our mistakes? How we answer dramatically affects how we handle our kid's mistakes, not to mention our own. Hit play to hear a discussion on how to approach mistakes in life and parenting followed by a conversation at (33:00) on social media's pitfalls and best uses. Ways to connect: Leave us a Review Instagram Facebook Web…