Think about the weight of this. It's something you are - a father. And something you do - father. It's both a noun and a verb. This isn't a role a man steps into lightly.
He may be paternal or adoptive but his relation is only as important as his action. He cares for, protects and provides. He assumes responsibility for...but all that's still just technical stuff. Stuff that's assumed when father is your state of being.
My daily fathering is all of that technical stuff with skin on - It's:
laughing at 'bargains' (what my son calls a fart)
break dancing after a long day
reading about Jonah and the Wocket in My Pocket
learning patience amidst tantrum...after tantrum...after tantrum
answering the question again
wiping
feeding
modeling
missing when I'm gone - aching to return
discipline...again and again...with grace
fostering joy
discerning frustrations and anger
encouraging without exasperating
hoping without faulty expectations
praying often...though not enough
guiding and providing and professing and being.
Sometimes it's simply staying.
Always it's loving.
And right at this very moment it's quitting the blog post and building with play-tools...It's always here and now. Fathering is my nature, it's my state of being until I die. It's who I am and what I am.
Read John 15:9 to catch a glimpse of fatherhood discipleship...What He gives us, we pass on to our own.