America’s 250th birthday is a perfect moment for dads and moms to remember that this nation was never meant to be built on sand, but on the Rock—on God’s truth, God’s grace, and God’s design for freedom and responsibility. On a birthday this big, the question isn’t “Is America perfect?” but “What are we building on, and what are we teaching our kids to love?
If you’re a dad or granddad, this isn’t just a history question; it’s a discipleship question. Your kids are learning a story about America from somewhere. The only question is whether that story lines up with God’s truth.
Built on the Rock (and on the Fridge)
Jesus said the wise man “built his house on the rock,” so when the storms came, the house stood firm; the foolish man built on sand, and his house collapsed. Our founders knew something about that difference. They didn’t get everything right, but they understood that rights come from God, not from government, and that any nation that forgets that will eventually wash away in the storms of history.
That’s really the heartbeat behind Better Dads Better Kids, “Built on the Rock,” and #thefridgeproject. If a home, a church, or a country wants to stand, it has to put God’s word, God’s wisdom, and God’s ways at the center—on the fridge, in the living room, in the classroom, and in the city council.
In our house, those 13 principles from Just Call Me Dad ended up on the refrigerator, where our kids could see them every day. That simple habit shaped their hearts far more than any news cycle ever could.
Two Parties, Two Stories About America
One of the biggest problems right now is that Americans aren’t even telling the same story about our country anymore. Recent polling shows that pride in being American has dropped to historic lows, especially during the so called pride month. That drop has been driven almost entirely by Democrats and younger adults. In one recent survey, fewer than one in five Democratic voters said they were proud to be American. 1
Another national poll found that around 90 percent of Republicans say they are extremely or very proud to be American, compared to roughly 30 percent of Democrats. Republicans tend to highlight freedom, faith, the military, and the founding as reasons for gratitude, while many Democrats emphasize America’s failures and injustices.
You may see this in your own family: one child or relative who can’t stop talking about everything wrong with America, and another who still feels deep gratitude to live here.
Matthew 20, Mindset, and Your Kids
This past weekend, Pastor Mark preached on Matthew 20 and the workers in the vineyard. Jesus tells a story about a landowner who hires workers at different times of the day—but at the end, He pays them all the same. The guys who started early grumble: “That’s not fair. We worked longer. We deserve more.”
The message I took away from that sermon is: Are you looking for something to complain about or something to be grateful for, because your mind will usually find what you’re looking for. If you want to be offended, you’ll find plenty of reasons—whether it’s politics, race, history, or your paycheck. If you decide to be grateful, you’ll see the grace of God in places you used to walk right past.
As dads, that’s a huge question for us: What are we training our kids’ minds to look for? Are we raising professional complainers or grateful disciples?
“Life Isn’t Fair” – A Dad Lesson
In Just Call Me Dad, I told my kids—and every dad who would listen—one of the most important lessons a child can ever learn: life isn’t fair. I didn’t mean that as an excuse to quit; I meant it as a call to responsibility. A dad who teaches his kids that life must always be fair is setting them up for bitterness, not resilience.
“Life isn’t fair” is not a hopeless statement; it’s an invitation to build your life—and your parenting—on something better than fairness: on truth, grace, and responsibility. Just think if God gave us what we deserve.
What Our Kids Are Being Taught
Here’s where it gets practical for Better Dads Better Kids: too many of our kids today are being taught the wrong story about America. Instead of learning that life isn’t fair, sin is real, and grace is greater, they’re being taught that their primary identity is victim or oppressor and that the answer is always more power, more protest, or more government. They’re told to look for reasons to be offended, not reasons to be grateful; to fixate on what others have that they don’t, instead of the Godly blessings, including grace, they have in their own life.
That’s why I wrote Just Call Me Dad and someday hope to get #thefridgeproject off the ground—to get those 13 principles back on the fridge, back in the home, back in the everyday conversations between moms, dads, and kids. Principles like responsibility, gratitude, forgiveness, and faith are not just “nice” ideas; they are the rock that keeps a family—and a city—standing when the storms hit.
If we don’t teach our kids to love what is good about this country and to repent of what is evil, someone else will gladly teach them to hate the whole thing. And they’ll use that hatred to sell them a different “gospel” that leads nowhere good. Their focus on short term pleasure as opposed to long term purpose leads to all the violence we see in our community.
Not a Perfect Country, But a Blessed One
So let’s be honest: Are we a perfect country? No. Are there things in our history that we wish we had done differently? Absolutely. Slavery, segregation, corruption, injustice—we don’t excuse those things, and we don’t pretend they didn’t happen.
But we also don’t let those sins erase everything God has done through this nation: the spread of the gospel, the defeat of tyrants, the lifting of more people out of poverty than any other nation in history, and the unique experiment of self-government under God.
The same way you talk to your kids, you can talk to your country: “Own your mistakes, repent, and then get back to work.” You don’t love your kids only when they’re perfect; you love them enough to tell them the truth and help them grow. In the same way, loving America doesn’t mean denying her faults; it means thanking God for her blessings, confessing her sins, and building the next generation on the Rock instead of on the sand.
Question for Dads
As we celebrate 250 years of America, here’s the question I’d love every dad reading this to wrestle with:
What story about God, about America, and about life are your kids hearing at your kitchen table?
Check out Romans 8:5-8, Isaiah 55:8-9
Check this out https://seeplymouth.com/listing/national-monument-to-the-forefathers/
Written with AI assistance
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