Your Children Learn Most From The Life You Live

What if the surest way to protect your kids isn’t tighter rules, but a truer you? We dive into fatherhood at the level that actually changes homes—identity, hope, and a resurrection-shaped way of living that our children can see and follow. Drawing on 1 Corinthians 15 and Romans 8, we unpack what it means to move from the image of Adam to the image of the Man of heaven, and why that shift frees dads from shame, perfectionism, and performance. Along the way, we share a raw story of addiction interrupted by a simple word—“You’re going to be okay”—and how that kind of grace becomes a father’s most powerful tool.

We get practical, too. Instead of lectures, we talk about modeling: opening Scripture each morning, asking forgiveness when we miss it, blessing our wives in front of our children, and naming our own temptations so our children learn to return to God when they fail. We explore how “grave-tending” religion keeps families small, while the Spirit invites us into an expectant, childlike posture—What’s next, Papa?—that reshapes the atmosphere of the home. This is spiritual leadership that trades fear for presence and control for courage.

Listen, share with a friend who needs encouragement today, and if this helped you, subscribe and leave a review so more fathers can find their way back to strength and joy.

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Chapters

• 1:25 Welcome And Mission
• 3:18 Tech Fix And Warm Shoutouts
• 5:10 The Man In The Mirror
• 7:32 Protecting Kids In A Broken World
• 12:45 Who Do You Think You Are
• 16:40 A Mother’s Voice And Early Identity
• 22:06 Career, Loss, And True Identity
• 26:30 Bearing The Image Of The Man Of Heaven
• 31:05 You’re Going To Be Okay: Hope For The Addicted
• 36:40 Resurrection Life Beats Shame

Transcript

Welcome And Mission

SPEAKER_02 1:24

Well, we're live here.

SPEAKER_01 1:27

We are, let's let me find out here why our preliminary video did not run. It's just run it here from here.

SPEAKER_00 1:37

What kind of father do you want to be? What kind of man do you want to become for your family and for yourself? If you've ever wondered how to step into the fullness of your role as a father, husband, and man of God, then you're in the right place. Here at the Father Difference, our mission is to inspire and equip men to be the best fathers they can be. It's a powerful mission. And today, we're going to explore exactly how you can take steps toward that calling. Whether you're a father, a son, a husband, grandfather, single dad, stepfather, or just looking to grow, I believe God has something powerful for you in today's message. Whether you're tuning in live or watching this later, we are so excited to have you here. If this is what you're looking for, then subscribe so you can tune in each week to the Father Difference Live. You can sign up below. And now your host, a husband, father, grandfather, author, and former NFL player, Pastor Ed McGlass.

Tech Fix And Warm Shoutouts

The Man In The Mirror

Protecting Kids In A Broken World

Who Do You Think You Are

A Mother’s Voice And Early Identity

Career, Loss, And True Identity

SPEAKER_01 2:53

Good to be with you here. Tuesday, February the 17th. Excited about sharing with you today a subject that we get a lot in the Fatherhood Academy. Many guys get a hold of me trying to wonder how I can be the best father I can be. Oh, there's my buddy Adam. Adam is up in Adam right in the beginning. Good to see you, my friend. He's an incredible man of God, businessman, entrepreneur, beloved son, and who's got a wife who still likes him. Good to see you, Adam. Welcome tonight. As we're we're we're gonna look at this whole subject to understand this uh this subject. Testing one, two, three. Do you guys hear me now? Good. Okay. For some reason the mic was muted, and I was I was giving a shout out to my buddy Adam Flores. He's an incredible young entrepreneur, businessman, lover of one woman, great father, beloved son. Good to see you tonight live. And we're gonna talk to you night about something that's really powerful in in all of our lives, and that is this this whole idea of the man in the mirror is actually the man that they see. And the more you develop that man, the more you develop who God has made you to be, the more impact you're gonna have with your children. Uh, people talk to me all the time. We do a lot of coaching for families where kids have run away, and with grandpas and grandmas who can't even get close to their kids because their children have taken on this crazy identity in their life. And and and dads and young dads ask me all the time, what can I do to protect my children from the ever-increasing craziness of the world? And the Bible is very clear that as we get closer and closer in these last days that we're in, the world's gonna get more and more wicked. But at the same time that happens, the promise of Jesus is don't worry about what's happening in the world. His power is going to increase exponentially on his people, you and me, on our children. And so, how do we uh protect our kids and how do we help them really discover who God wants them to be? Because they start out, you know, being our buddy, and then in the midst of turning towards their teenage years and learning, what do we do as a dad? Well, it's the dad in the mirror that's the most powerful voice in the life of your sons. Have you noticed that no matter what you say, no matter what you do, they're watching you. And you can have a tremendous impact in the life of your kids just by allowing God the Father to do a work in you that's so sovereign that it happens right in front of your kids. And when they see that, it gives them a roadmap into who God's made them to be. Ready? So let's look at this and what that kind of looks like. Okay, here's the first question: Who do you see yourself to be? If I were to say, could you describe yourself? You can throw it to me in the chat, you can ask me a question. Who do you see yourself to be? And that that person that you really believe that you are, and that person that you are projecting, is what your son sees, but they see even deeper beyond those things is you know, those identities that we've taken on ourselves that maybe are disappointing, or we don't fully realize those things. Now, I, you know, when I was a young kid, my mother would tell me a story about my father, and and it was one of these stories that really marked me. It's one of the reasons why I wear this jersey today, because he was a football player at the Naval Academy, ended up hurting his left knee just like his son in the NFL. But he had always had the dream of being a professional athlete. And my mom would come in the room and she would, you know, you know, just the way moms can. You know, moms have great power. I and it makes me laugh. Every time I think about the wedding in Cana, Jesus story, and Jesus is basically saying, Mom, my time isn't yet. And she looks away from him because he had run out of wine and looked at the servants and says, Do whatever my son tells you. It's like, you know, Mary wasn't having it, she wasn't gonna look bad. All these thirsty people, the wine's running out, and she looks at her son and says, Do whatever he tells you. You can just see Jesus' face, mom. And moms have that kind of impact, right? And in was your mom that way? My mom was an incredible believer in who God had made me to be. She was the impetus in my life, and in in so many ways, because my stepdad was my my natural father was killed in action, so I never knew him, but my stepfather was, you know, away as a submarine commander, away in in the med doing what they do to protect our country. And so he was gone sometimes nine months out of the year. And so my mom, I remember her coming to me one day, and she looks at me with that voice that she has, and she she says, you know, your dear father, he had one dream in his life that one day he could play professional football. I can just hear my mom Jean, her voice. But if you, his only son, could make it in the National Football League, he would look down from heaven and be so proud. And you know, that that's not a wicked thing my mom did, but she was she was setting into me an answer to the to the every question, uh, every man has this question. And that is uh, who am I? Will my and and maybe will my life really make a difference? And maybe the third question is, well, I even like what my life will turn out to be. And so it's all around this issue of identity. So when I say, who do you see yourself to be? Do you see yourself is your is it about your job? Is it about your career? You know, you you say, well, Ed, you're getting to wear a jersey, right? So you ended up playing in the NFL, which I did. But, you know, they didn't treat me too good after I retired. With all the injuries and all the things, I'm still, you know, in the midst of a litigation with stuff with with a couple of teams because of them putting me back on the field when I was hurt. So they they didn't have my best at uh in their hearts. They wanted to win football games. And which, you know, I don't I don't blame them. And I was a zealot, and and I poured everything into playing football and doing all that, only to discover that uh that wasn't big enough. And because what happens if you lose your job? And if you lose your job, then who are you? And so one of the one of these incredible promises about identity uh comes right here in scripture, and it says this, you know, really is how how to and before I get there, hold on a second. I want to share one other slide with you first. And and it's right here in 1 Corinthians 15, verse 49. Just as we've been born in the image of the man of dust, so that's Adam. All of us were born the same way. We were born separated from God because Adam and Eve sinned, and they and they encountered a spiritual death that would pass on from generation to generation to generation, to where their relationship with God the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit in the garden, they lost access to that when sin came. And they and basically, you know, in 1 Corinthians 15, 49, Paul's writing that just as we've been born in the image of the man of dust, that's Adam, we shall also bear the image of the man of heaven. Gosh, don't you just love that verse? It's such an incredible promise. It's what God promises for you and for me. And it and it's kind of like it's kind of like this. I I heard this incredible uh testimony from a dear friend of mine who's has, and I I won't tell you his name, you might know him, but he just he has this incredible impact on people who get stuck in with drugs and alcohol, and and where they become addicts. And he remembers when, you know, he was at his, he got a knock on his door, and the current state of his life was he he was losing everything. His wife had said that's enough. She left, took the kids, he was alone at the house, he was recovering from another another night of just uh you know drinking himself stupid and and and he just he just was lived in this incredible shame and just this incredible guilt in his life, and and really felt like and you know, he was even told me uh time before, Sharon, about this, that he just wanted to die. Because you know, the the that's why the Bible says that the wages of sin is death, but the the free gift of God is eternal life in Christ. And so if the devil can get us to name ourselves by our brokenness or our sin, or get us to name ourselves by a career that we poured our life into, how do you handle it when you lose it all? Or when it's taken from you? And it's my friend was at his home, he got a knock on the door and went to the door, and there was a guy who he he didn't really know too well, he knew about him. He was a part of AA, and he he looked at him and and Danny says, So what do you want? And he looked at him and said, I just want to tell you something. You're gonna be okay. Like a prophetic word right from the the heart of God to the brokenness we all carry. And his message was, Let me tell you, God, God's gonna take care of you. You're gonna be okay. And you know, it's really easy to pile on somebody who's broken or addicted or stuck. But this guy spoke that into him, and it gave him hope. It was just a very simple little thing, it's not like the words were magical, but the words came from somebody who had the same broken life years before. And one of the things that he discovered was the pursuit of the love of God towards him, even in his worst day. Maybe you find yourself that way with your family, maybe you find that yourself that way with your children. And I gotta tell you is that you know, I've experienced this in my own life, it's that we don't become great fathers because we've uh completely defeated all of our brokenness and we're like the perfect dad now and we do everything right. We we become real fathers and powerful fathers when we become a roadmap to the way that the love and the mercy of God can change a man's life. And if you want to shape your kids into amazing people, the most powerful thing that you can model is that your your own secret life with God and how he is changing you into the man, the husband, if you're married, the father, and maybe as a grandfather that God's called you to be. Because we're men today are so filled with with shame, they're being marginalized. But the promise of this verse that I love so much is that just as we have been born in the image of the man of dust, we shall also bear the image of the man of heaven. Paul's words to a church caught in sin. They were they were they were not a healthy church in Corinth there. And and God's promise is I'm with you. I'm never gonna leave you, I'm never gonna forsake you. I'm gonna be I'm gonna be there in your life. Maybe you you find yourself there today. And the truth of this incredible scripture is that God's gonna do it. So how's he gonna do that in our life? Well, you know, I I just love this scripture from Romans 8, verse 15, and it talks about the resurrection life that God wants to give you and wants you to receive in your own life. It talks about the power of what that really does and the way it reforms up, it reshapes us as men, as husbands, as fathers. And and it goes this way, and this is from the message version. I just love this version of the Bible, and this resurrection life that you've received from God is not a timid, grave-tending life. You know, uh, if the devil can keep you in a place of shame and in a place of guilt in your life, and if he can keep you in that place, you're gonna feel like you're never really gonna make a difference. Let me make it a little bigger bigger on Instagram. Here we go. There we go. If he if you you focus your entire life about what's broken in you, in other words, you you you end up uh in this place of being timid because You're broken. You're just really aware about how broken you are. But that's not the resurrection life. I remember the day I began to really understand this incredible truth. And it was this. And when Jesus died on the cross, and and he didn't just mostly die, not like the princess bride, and they were the wizard was trying to discover is he dead or mostly dead? The hero of the story. No, Jesus died completely in our place to pay the penalty for all the sin that we would ever do, all the sin that was ever done to us. And so the truth of the matter is that we were buried with him in that moment, in that tomb. But when that rock rolled away, that resurrection power, that resurrection life that Romans talks about is not a timid and a grave-tending light. It's just eventually expectant. It's like, what are we going to do? How much fun are we going to have greeting God with this childlike faith? And I just love this. What's next, Papa? And if you live that kind of life in front of your children, you're going to make an incredible impact on them because it gives them the redo option in their life when they blow it. It gives them, you know, what do they do when they when they blow it? You know, parenting is not about getting them to follow all the rules so that you feel safe as a parent. Parenting is and you know, Christian godly parenting is living an incarnational life in front of your children. So they see how dad and mom get back to Jesus when they when they blow it. And the truth of the matter is in you and me, beloved, we blow it. Somebody want to say amen. You know, we we we blow it. I got amen's porn in here. But it says it's God's spirit, and the way this happens is the Holy Spirit touches our spirits, the person we are, or the soul of who we are as a human being. One day we're going to get rid of this body and and we're going to live forever, and we're going to get a new body. But God's Spirit, the Holy Spirit, touches us in the deepest way and confirms who we really are. Who we really are to God and the difference that we can make. And it goes on. I just love this transition here in this verse, because we know who he is and we know who we are. Father and children. And we know we are going to get what's coming to us. And here's the promise right there in that verse. The promise is that we're going to get an incredible, unbelievable inheritance. I mean, God's promise to us is that the inheritance that he has for his son, when he died on the cross and rose out of the death, he bought access for us so that when we come to him and we bring our lives to him, we can hear just like my friend said to a young man in our church, I just need to tell you something.

SPEAKER_02 26:20

You're going to be okay. You're going to be okay because God has got you.

SPEAKER_01 26:34

The more you lean into him as your savior. And the more you lean into to the Holy Spirit for the power you need, the more impact you're going to have as a father on your children. See, fathering is not about being perfect, fathering is about being real. So that they see a real life. Something just really profound to me. And he says, Dad, I one of the the things that I admire about you the most is I've watched what you do when you suffer. You get up every morning, you open your Bible, you write a devotional, you connect. And I can't tell you how much that means to me because you've modeled to me uh what it means to to be a son to a father who loves you.

SPEAKER_02 27:54

Because that that's what our kids catch, because they're gonna suffer just like we do.

SPEAKER_01 28:00

They're gonna be talked about, they're gonna be lied about, they're gonna be marginalized, they're gonna be persecuted, they're gonna come under spiritual warfare, they're gonna have their own things to deal with, they're gonna have their own places where their flesh gets more control than God's spirit, and they need to know how to come back. And so, how where are they gonna learn this? They're gonna learn this through AI? I don't think so. They're gonna have all the in artificial intelligence, the smartest computers in the world or the best ideas, but it's the person they are when no one is looking. That person that God knows, that person that you know. And the more you bring that person to him with this, what's that verse say again, this childlike, you know, expectant, you know, thing that to this unbelievable inheritance that we have. Because the truth is that we're gonna go through exactly what Christ goes through. We're gonna go through suffering in our life, we're gonna go through temptation in our life, we're gonna go through being marginalized, we're gonna go through people speaking badly about us, we're gonna go through all this kind of stuff, the spiritual warfare and all this kind of stuff. But Jesus went through all of that. We go through exactly what what Christ went through. He was tempted in every way, the Bible says, just like we are, yet he was out without sin. And if we go through the hard times with him, then we're certainly going to go through the good times with him as well.

SPEAKER_02 29:52

Don't you just love that?

You’re Going To Be Okay: Hope For The Addicted

SPEAKER_01 29:56

Because he is a present God in time of trouble, and it's just so profound to think that God sent his perfect son to not only die in our place, but to teach us how to connect to the Father just like him. I'm gonna back up on that verse just uh because it's I just think it's just worth just looking at reading it again. This resurrection life you receive from God is not a timid, grave-tending life. I want you to say that over yourself right now. This resurrection life you have received from God is not a timid, grave-tending life. It's adventuring expectant, greeting God with a child like, what's next, Papa? I can just hear Jesus waking up early in the morning. Good morning, Papa. Good morning, Abba. My Abba, who art in heaven, hallowed be thy name. Show me what you're doing today around me. Give me eyes to see what the Father is doing so I can partner with you every day. And God's spirit, the Holy Spirit, it touches us with our spirits and confirms who we are. And and who are we? We're we're beloved sons because we know who he is, and and we know who we are, father and children, and we know we're gonna get what's coming to us. There's a there's a witness when you nurture that place in you of being a son and following the Father in the Son Jesus Christ and the Holy Spirit, there's something that happens to you where you get expected, because you know that your inheritance is coming one day. We all want it right now. We we want it to happen right now for our kids. We want it to happen for our families right now. But the more we live as a real model of a father in front of our kids, the more we give them a pathway to do this human life that's spirit empowered by the Holy Spirit, the resurrection power of Jesus in our lives. The more we live that kind of life, instead of just being the guy who's making sure our kids keep the rules. But in application, I've learned in my life, and where my my sons and my daughters, they blew it sometimes really bad. How about your kids? And and you know, uh my lecture or my little sermon, matter of fact, in early days, they would go, nice sermon, dad. I wanted to smack them.

SPEAKER_02 32:52

But they they wanted to know, dad, what do I do? Did you ever were you ever tempted like this? Did you ever go through stuff like I'm going through?

SPEAKER_01 33:06

Man, I tell you, I I've met some I've met some dads who were, they were, they weren't like sons, but their whole identity was to be a Christian, so all they did was just quote scripture over their kids all the time, thinking that they were protecting them by trying to force them to listen and to hear. But the secret of getting your children to read that book called The Bible, the perfect word of God throughout thousands of years, is to be a man who lives those scriptures out right in front of them and shows and it lives with great honesty the struggle that you face in your own life, walking out these promises and waiting on the Lord.

SPEAKER_02 34:06

And it's the hope in you that you nurture in God's word every day that is the secret to your children making it with flying colors.

SPEAKER_01 34:23

See, I'm I might have been big head for a while as a football player, but I'm not big enough to protect my children. Gosh, I I want to. I I want to protect them from all kinds of things. And of course, if somebody messes with my kids, you know, in the name of Jesus, they're gonna be maybe not die, but they will be seriously hurt.

SPEAKER_02 34:50

So I'll protect them.

SPEAKER_01 34:54

But they but they will be far worse off if I'm the one that's protecting them and they've not learned how to connect to Jesus to receive that protection for themselves. And the more you live a real life, dad, in front of your kids, with all the ups and downs and sideways, and teaching them how to forgive by you asking for forgiveness and teaching them how to ask Jesus for forgiveness when they promise to not do it again, because you have showed them how to deal that, the more impact you're gonna have with your kids, because you're gonna build a way for them to really connect. Amen. We're gonna end it right there. Next time we get together, we're gonna go farther into this. But before I get off tonight, I want to pray for you and your family. I got a bunch of friends here. I'm so grateful for you that have come from different places and from all you that are on Rumble and Outside the Country and on X and et cetera. I'm so grateful that you're watching tonight. And I just want to pray for you. And in for for just uh and just say to you, just like my friend said to a young man in our church who got baptized on Sunday, who was like in his 65th day of being sober. Gosh, what a credible work of God.

Resurrection Life Beats Shame

SPEAKER_02 36:38

You're gonna be okay. Because you follow Christ, you're gonna be okay.

SPEAKER_01 36:46

So, Father, I pray for my parents, I pray for my brothers, I pray for them as fathers, I pray for them as living this what's next, Papa life that Jesus, you promised that not only have have we started out, we were born, you know, in the image of the man of dust Adam, we shall bear the image of the man of heaven, Jesus. You're gonna be okay. Father, I pray for my brothers. I pray that you empower them, I pray you would use them in every place in their life to worship you. I pray for their families, I pray for their children, I pray for their marriages. I pray, Father, that you would give them, that you would break through in their own heart in a way to love and serve their wives and their children in profound ways. And I thank you, Lord, for your empowering spirit. And I bless you to bless these men in the name of Jesus. And all God's men said, Amen. Hey, listen, we got a short little video as we kind of uh end our stream here. And I want to encourage you, if you've not, if you you're in a place where you really want to grow to the next level as a dad, you want to learn some things, but maybe get some tools that maybe your father never showed you, or maybe you got some things in your marriage and you need some coaching. Consider the offer that I'm gonna roll here just in a second. Consider joining the Fatherhood Academy and becoming part of this incredible vision that the Lord's given me about a place where men can come and learn from one another and from the scripture and through coaching to become the husbands and fathers that God that they want to be, and the grandmas and the grandpas. We got a lot of grandmas who watch us, a lot of group, a lot of moms who watch us on Thursdays. Your wife's not a part of our the different mom makes show on Thursday this week. Have her tune in at 12 noon. Maybe you'll you know take the kids out for a hamburger or whatever so they can uh get some time. A lot of our gals are coming, we're having a great time together. But watch this video. I'm so grateful to be with you. And so here it comes.

SPEAKER_00 39:26

If you've enjoyed what you've seen and heard today, and you want to know more about how to be the husband and father your family really needs, please go to thefatherdifference.com and click on the Fatherhood Academy and sign up today. It only takes one loving father to change the course of generations and one perfectly heavenly father to begin the process. May God bless you, and we look forward to seeing you in the Fatherhood Academy.