This is a listing of books I have used and continue to use for research and to guide my children in the Legacy Dad Process.
This list is not complete, as it is ever changing and fluid.
The books listed for my children are up through age 16, after 16 other books will be introduced. Obviously some of these books are for research and not intended to be read by my children, these will be obvious.
See the list of books here: Legacy Dad Research Books
A few weeks ago I wrote about how the youth of an organization and our children are a Direct Reflection of their parents and the environment they grow up in.
Listen to this testimony from 17 year old Paige
We took the family camping this past weekend and unlike our first trip Survivordad 1 this time it was a little more comfortable. The big adventure at this particular campsite was a hiking trail which led to a large cave where you could go spelunking and check out the rock formations inside the cave.
Little did I know when I booked this campsite 2 months ago, this weekend the temperatures were hitting close to 110 degrees in some areas. The morning of the big hike, my wife and daughter decided that they would skip the "excitement" of a 10 mile round trip hike in 110 degree weather.
My son and I, who have more testosterone than brains, decided we could do it and started out at 9:30AM for our 10 Mile round trip hike. I must also note that there was only one water point which was located at about the first mile and the last mile.
By 11:00AM, my son and I were exhausted. This led to some good teaching points.
We both wanted to quit and we met a lot of people who did, they simply turned around and went back. However, my son and I wanted to reach for the prize. My son and I talked about quitting versus going further.
I explained to him that in life, true greatness is often measured in the extra mile. When you are ready to quit, when life gets hard, when you are thrown opposition or when you have success, grow complacent or simply feel you have arrived. Those that push further and go the extra mile, are often the ones who are the most rewarded in life.
Showing greater compassion, being a little kinder, giving more of ourselves, saving more money, working harder on character. All these things are rewarded.
We finally reached the caves and my son was so happy we made it. He reflected that the people who gave up, would never enjoy the beauty and satisfaction of what God created. We went the extra mile and we were rewarded with the prize.
Lesson learned.
I wanted to add this video as a further teaching point for Humility and life in general. This is a great song by Point Of Grace and the person who made this video tribute did a great job with the pictures.
Humility is an often misunderstood virtue, especially in today's culture. We want our children to be strong, self sufficient and independent. 
Humility, however, is a core virtue to instill, and it often has deep implications into other virtues, morals, and values.
Equally tricky is the fact that humility must be modeled, not explained. If you want your children to read, you must read. If you want your children to exercise, you must exercise. And if you want your children to learn humility, you must model it.
To be honest, this virtue did not come easy to me at first. I grew up in the competitive, dog eat dog world and most of what I've learned about humility, I have learned from my father in law and from my wife.
My best understanding of humility is that yes, I can be successful, talented, or blessed but I must also remember that I am but one small person in God's large world. My successes in life are not just for myself, but for the good of all.
I've been very lucky to meet a lot of highly successful men, my father in law included, who despite success, remains humble.
The trick in parenting is to encourage and congratulate children for their successes, blessings, wins, etc. but to also keep them looking at the bigger picture. Focusing on what really matters, not majoring in the minors.
We have all been witness to people who spend their lives chasing success or money and then they feel no shame in flaunting it to those less fortunate or to those who spend their lives pursuing more altruistic causes.
Another problem is falling prey to societies self-centeredness. Many times when children become good at something, especially when it gets them praise from parents, peers and teachers, they focus on this superiority as the root of their worth and love.
Hollywood and the media do a great job of telling our children that their worth is measured by their looks, wallet and the brands they wear and drive. It is our job as parents to deflect this and teach reality.
Instilling humility gives our children many things. It gives them perspective, honesty, and it shows them their true worth.
One great way of teaching humility is failure. I learned humility many times through this sometimes painful life lesson!
When your children fail at something, let them know that you love them for who they are, not for what they do.
This is also a great life lesson. People are valuable because they are human and God's people not because of what they have or do.
Humility also strengthens security.
I felt the most secure in my life the day I realized that I do not have to compete with others, I do not have to keep up with the Joneses, I do not have to compare myself to others. Only God can judge me.
We have all met insecure people who gossip, use put downs and call names. The way to defend against this is to simple have humility. When our children realize that all humans have equal value and when they do not esteem themselves over others, they do not worry about exerting their superiority over others or worry about a bully or an insecure persons comments.
Humility also teaches discipline, self restraint and that we are all on a team working for the greater good. It teaches them to look outward and that they are not the only ones who count.
So how do we model humility?
Start now, make a list of family priorities. What do we value the most? Faith, Love, Relationships, Feelings?
Humility is woven into our families rules.
Remember that humility is to be modeled not spoken, Look daily for ways to demonstrate humility and we will see that our children will be healthier, stronger, more secure and they will know that their self worth comes from being God's children.
Here's a quote that I love and modified slightly. In the future you will see this on a Legacy Dad T-shirt.
"It's not where you're from, it's where you're going."
"It's not what you drive, it's what drives you."
"It's not what's on you, it's what's in you."
"It's not what you get, It's what you give back."
I'm no expert and sometimes I wonder if I am getting this parenting thing right, but our children often seem to be an immediate gauge at our progress or lack of in this parenting model.
My children are not described as perfect or gifted but most often as "secure and morally based" which to me is an extreme compliment because that means we are hitting the mark on our ultimate goal.
Since starting Legacy Dad, I have received countless emails and talked with lots of parents on how to raise kids who turn out right. Most want a cookie cutter recipe to follow, just as I did, but unfortunately there is not one.
We've recently had talks with new parents looking for advice on how to go from birth to where we are now and the best advice we have come up with is this:
Moderation - You have to have moderation in all things: TV, video games, music, friends, etc. Going too extreme in restricting or allowing can lead to unintended results.
Healthy Marriage - The basis of the family is the marriage. If the marriage is strong, the family is strong. If there is conflict and pain in the marriage, there will be conflict and pain in the family.
Foundation - The family needs a strong foundation to build on. This includes faith, morals and values, and a set of family rules. Children need to know the boundaries and need to know there are consequences for crossing them.
Focus on What Counts - Basing a child's identity on their win ratio in sports, academic success and physical beauty are what the world deems important. We focus on character traits, relationships (including one with God), calculated risk taking and the freedom to express oneself and be different without ridicule or criticism.
Note: There is nothing wrong with success in sports, academics or physical beauty and if your child has been blessed with these traits that is wonderful. The problem is when we focus on these areas as the most important.
Parental Modeling - Study after study shows that it does not matter what we say, but what we do that shapes our children's being more than anything. The behaviors and example we set in everything, whether our children are watching or not, are the ones our children will adopt whether we like it or not.
Finally, remember that every parent leaves a legacy. Some good, some bad. Some mediocre, some significant. The unknown factor in the equation is not the child but the parents.
Keep up the great work dads, Happy Father's Day.
One of the things that I am discovering on this parenting journey is that you can tell a lot about a family, church or any organization by talking with the youth of the organization, especially teens.
Children and teenagers have a habit of being totally honest about their life situations and observing them can give you great insight into their lives.
The past few weeks, we have been looking for a new church home for the next 7 months and this week we found it.
Trying new churches is always hard for our family because it's new people, new pastors, and new youth worship. But today, there was a majority rule in our family that we found our church.
At first I though we'd walked into a Newsboys concert?
There was a youth band on stage jamming out some worship songs at high decibels.
This is a little different, I thought.
After a few more high energy Christian rock songs the youth pastor came out an announced that this week was the annual youth service in which the youth of the church share their worship music and personal walk with the lord. 
Now it started to make sense.
What followed was testimonies by teenagers of their experience with previous churches and how they were saved and dedicated their lives to God through this church. Also, was a recent graduating seniors testimony of how her father was in a tragic accident a few weeks ago and how her faith and belief got her through and how their prayer helped saved her fathers life.
Listening to these teens testimony made me proud and honored to be apart of their service and I only hope that my children will have the same faith and vision in the years to come.
Sitting in the service my wife and I came to the conclusion that if these teens were a reflection of this church then we definitely wanted to be apart of it.
After the service, our children also told us that this was the best church they have been to in a long time.
End of discussion, we found our new home.
Today's journey was once again a reminder that there is hope for my children and that there are those out there who are raising strong, confident Christian leaders for tomorrow.
Until next time...