Falling in love with your spouse is great. Making a lot of money is awesome. Crushing it at work is too. It’s nice to have a big house or to go out and have a wonderful night with friends. But nothing is quite like coming home and having your kid rush to give you a hug. When they fall asleep on you on the couch. When they climb on your shoulders. When you hear them coming around the corner, excitedly saying your name and they jump into your bed.
Nothin’s better, as Bruce Springsteen put it, than blood on blood.
There is a lot of great stuff in life, but nothing is better than family. That’s what he’s saying. The blood relation is not what he’s talking about. He’s talking about the bond. The people you look the other way for. The people you’d do anything for. The people who you are doing all this for.
So the question to think about today is: If this really is the best and most important thing, are you really building your life around it? If nothing feels better than that hug, than wrestling on the floor, than carrying them in your arms to throw them in the pool on a summer afternoon, then why isn’t it happening more often?
We pull extra hours at the office to get promoted. We take risks to make investments with our money. We make plans to see friends or have fun. But do we actively sacrifice and scheme so that we might have more of the one pleasure that tops them all? Do we actively prioritize the thing that truly matters most? Those moments when blood is on blood, when family is together?
Crazy, isn’t it?
P.S. This was originally sent on December 19, 2019. Sign up today for the Daily Dad’s email and get our popular 11 page eBook, “20 Things Great Dads Do Everyday.”