Fathers want to protect and love their daughters but connecting with them is just as important but sometimes they just don’t know how. Daughters need to know that they can run to their father to talk about the tough and emotional things and feel comfortable doing so.
To help in this critical relationship, flight nurse-turned-author Mark LaMaster has just released his second book of faith-driven life lessons directed toward fathers, this time aiming for those dads wanting to connect with their girls.
In Friday Night Lights for Fathers and Daughters, LaMaster guides dads through 10 topics a father and daughter should discuss as they move through her tween and teen years into adulthood. The topics are: faith, body confidence, friendships, social media, calling and career, contentment, boys and boundaries, sex, prayer and woman of valor.
The chapters, each sprinkled with references to scriptures from the Bible, are broken up into episodes like a TV show. Each week a new topic, with the end of the 10-week series culminating like a ceremony similar to an awards show. The ceremony has is meant to help both father and daughter, by looking back and imprinting the lessons as moments to keep near to the heart and mind. His previous book, Friday Night Lights for Fathers and Sons, followed a similar format using a football season schedule (pre-season, regular season, and award ceremony) to cover topics for dads and tween and teen boys.
This book is not just written from the father’s perspective. The author’s daughter adds her thoughts with “Hannah’s Take,” a section giving a quick glimpse into how a teenage girl might react to what they are discussing during these talks that helps prepare a father’s heart for how his daughter might respond. These very vulnerable moments help bring great impact and relevance to these 10 topics and connect the reader in a vivid manner.
Mark and Hannah offer a great example of how dads and their girls can connect. As I read the book, it grabbed my heart and gave me what my wife calls “squishy moments” (all the feelings well up, as heart strings are plucked, and eyes fill with tears) because Mark and Hannah articulate something you as a father have been thinking about but did not know how to address with your child.
As a father of a very young daughter (a not yet 3-year-old), reading a book on how to connect with my teenage daughter might seem odd. However there is nothing wrong with getting a head start on what is to come for me and my own little girl’s adventurous life.
Friday Night Lights for Fathers and Daughters is a fantastic resource for cultivating a healthy life between a dad and his teenage girl. Whether she is striving to be a Christian or a person with good morals these faith-driven life lessons will plant the seeds that will help a girl to blossom into a beautiful woman a parent can be proud of.
About the author
Brock Lusch of Madison Place, Ohio, is organizer of the Cincinnati Dads Group. The full-time stay-at-home father is a married father of two pre-schoolers. He hosts the podcast, NOMADads.
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