A few years ago I was having a phone conversation with a good friend.  The purpose of his call was to invite me to a guys gathering at his house that night.  My wife already had plans with some of her girlfriends, so I was unable to hang with the boys.  I’ll never forget my response to him…  It’s bothers me to this day.

I said,

Sorry bro… I gotta babysit my kids.

The contemporary definition of the term babysit is ‘to take charge of a child while the parents are temporarily away.’  Basically, what I had told my friend is that I had to do something that wasn’t my responsibility.

Unfortunately, we live in a culture that embraces this language for our men.  When fathers watch their kids, they are temporarily stepping in for mom.  It’s not because they ‘want’ to, but because they ‘have’ to.  Compare this type of language to the challenge made in Deuteronomy 6 to parents.  Fathers were charged to teach their children about God while they sat at home, walked on the road, when they went to bed and when they woke up!

So fathers… as God changes our hearts may we change our language.  We don’t ‘have‘ to baby sit our kids, rather we ‘get‘ to teach, train, protect, love, and shepherd the blessings under our care.