For Father’s Day, we asked a few dads from across Hoboken Grace to reflect on fatherhood and faith through a simple question: how becoming a father has shaped the way they see God, experienced His love, or grown in their faith. Their responses are simple, honest, and rooted in everyday moments that quietly point them back to God.

CJ: “Becoming a Dad has changed the way I relate to God in a number of ways. Most notably, it’s awakened me to the idea of God’s unconditional love – my skills, accomplishments, or resume bullet points are so much of how you’re evaluated in the “real world”, but never the basis of my relationship with God. He just wants to be with me, to relate to Him as a child would their Dad.

I see that exemplified when my daughter wants to hang out without any agenda – maybe it’s to pick her up and hear about her day at school, or to fly paper airplanes around our apartment. I’m challenged to love her like Jesus, and it helps me understand how God relates to me.”

Nick: “My kids are constantly finding creative ways to show me they love me. But it's not always my favorite way to be loved, and I'll stubbornly deflect it or correct it instead of just accepting it. Fatherhood has shown me I do the same thing with God. I can miss how He's loving me because I'm too focused on it looking a specific way. And then there are times I spend more energy wondering if I deserve it than I do just receiving it.”

Jeremy: “Being a dad has opened my eyes more to how good of a Father God is. Your idea or perception of love deepens from that first moment in the hospital room. Then in those first few months, all you want to do is hold them all the time. It’s overwhelming to think of how much you love your kids, and yet how God’s love for us is a million times greater.

I’ve also tried to come to God more as a kid would want to come and simply sit with their dad or want to wrestle or play. My kids just want to be with me and our Heavenly Father feels the same way about us.”

Anthony: “Fatherhood has slowed me down enough to notice the heart of God in everyday moments. Whether it's celebrating Calla's excitement over something small or watching Hunter run into my arms after a long day, I'm reminded that my Heavenly Father delights in His children too. Being a dad hasn't just taught me how to love my kids, it has helped me believe more deeply that I'm loved by God, not because of what I do, but simply because I'm His.”

Vinnie: “My daughter, Kaylee, was about 18 months old. We had just come back from grocery shopping and I prepared a small bowl of grapes for her to snack on. She loved grapes and was inhaling them when I playfully asked her for a piece. Seeing what was in front of her, she decided that she didn’t have enough and refused to give me half a grape.

As a loving father who wants the best for her, I used the moment as a parenting opportunity and made her share a grape with me by taking it all away. It wasn’t pretty (nor quiet)…

After the waterworks and she had calmed down from her first experience of learning the act of giving and sharing, I went to the fridge and got a lot more grapes for all of us to eat together and all was well again. It’s an experience that has stayed with me all these years because I learned a lot more than my daughter that day. I realized that Kaylee’s experience with grapes mirrors a lot of our relationship with God and giving—we forget that God owns the entire universe and that He asks us to give and be generous for our sake, because He loves us and wants us to live freely.”