Blessings for All Kinds of Dads on Father’s Day

It can be hard to come up with just the right words for Dad sometimes. Being a dad comes with different kinds of blessings depending on the season of life you’re in. Here are several blessings for dads of all kinds, inspired by men in the Bible, to help you put into words what the Dad in your life means to you.

Blessing for New Dads

Blessed are you, son of Adam, who helped to escort a new creation into this world. You’ve given a name to your child, and now you will begin the work of building a legacy. Everything is new and filled with possibility. Bless these early days, these sleepless nights. Bless the way you navigate the transformation from man to dad, bless your returning to work and your coming home. Bless your construction of a solid foundation of health, love, and security your family will grow on, this Father’s Day and for years to come.

Blessing for Teen Dads

Blessed are you, brave son of Joseph, for choosing to walk the harder road to usher in unexpected love. You have made a way into the unknown. Bless your balancing work for pay and work for school, bless your trading in the first tastes of freedom for the full platter of responsibility, bless your bewilderment and wonder at what your world has become. Everything is harder than you expected, but bless it. This path is hard, and good, and holy, and you are strong, and brave, and good.

Blessing for Single Dads

Blessed are you, weary son of Jacob, for carrying the full weight of both parental roles on your shoulders. You are the glue that holds things together. No one sees all you juggle behind your strength—your grief, your loneliness, the burdens—but the Lord sees. Bless your loads of laundry and checkbook balancing, bless your day job and carpool and bedtime routines, bless your tag-teaming and compromising, your perseverance and running and raising up children who see your outpouring of love and collect it in their cupped hands, treasure for a lifetime,

Blessing for Dads of Littles

Blessed are you, busy son of Jacob, who wrestles a gaggle of toddlers and infants through meals and evening routines, who only has time to do the tasks that keep his children alive. You can, and will, survive these times. It might not feel like it, it might seem mundane and pointless and routine, but these small, daily tasks of love you are pouring into these little people is laying a foundation of safety and security their entire future will be built upon. They will know in their skin and bones that you were there, you were there, you were there.

Blessing for Dads of Teenagers

Blessed are you, anxious son of Joseph. The hour has drawn near, and now it is here, and now curfew has passed, and your child is still not home. You are the bearer of the long-view in your child’s life, the vision caster of hope for their future. You bolster your teen’s courage to step beyond the threshold of your home. Bless your attempts to make the shift from commands to advice, bless your making room for their mistakes, bless your humility and dad jokes, and bless most of all your forgiveness and grace. No matter what they say, you are still their safe place.

Blessing for Adoptive Dads

Blessed are you, merciful son of Joseph, who has welcomed someone else’s child into your home and called them yours. You are the one who chooses unconditional love, who chooses to call someone else daughter or son, who chooses parenthood even with its toddler tantrums and homework meltdowns and teenage rejection. Bless your worries of love unrequited, bless your preserving their story while knitting together a new one, bless your patience with comparisons, bless the questions, bless your bond. You have called them yours, an adopted child of God.

Blessing for Dads of Lost Babies

Blessed are you, mourning son of David, whose hands are empty with lost hopes. The Lord sees your grief for the future you longed for and weeps with you. Bless your walk alongside your grieving wife, whose grief is deep and solitary. Bless your courage to enter into that sad, sacred place, your strength to bridge the gap and deepen your trust of each other’s willingness to love, for better and even for worse, this worst thing that changes your relationship and strengthens your bond. Blessed are you who mourn, for you will be comforted.

Blessing for Long Awaited Dads

Blessed are you, son of Abraham, who has counted the stars and waited, and waited, and waited, and now the hope is realized. Laugh all you want, you are a father, finally. There is no joy like the joy you’ve found holding onto your child’s hand, feeling your child’s head on your shoulder, hearing your child’s ringing laughter. You have waited a long time for this. Bless your daily remembering the journey that brought you here, bless your long-suffering, bless your delight. Blessed are you, and so are your descendants, who will outnumber the stars.

Blessing for Fathers in Christ

Blessed are you, son of Paul, for seeing the young men and women around you and gathering them to yourself. You are a light in the darkness, a lamp to their path. You don’t owe anyone this time you spend and yet here you are. Bless your fishing lessons, your afternoon hikes, your bike rides and long talks and tolerance for childhood antics. Bless your showing up and pouring out, bless your eyes to see who otherwise feels unnoticed, bless your compassion and mercy and wisdom. You are a much-needed rock on a path of quicksand.

Blessing for Fathers-in-Law

Blessed are you, son of Jethro, who has doubled the love in your home by welcoming in the partner of your grown son or daughter. In doing so, you’ve placed your child’s heart into the palm of another. Bless your tolerance of shortcomings, your celebration of their strengths, the space you make on your couch for Sunday sporting events and the extra chairs you’ve placed around the table for dinner. Bless the small talk and conversation starters that lead to bits of wisdom and guidance given, with no expectations, just love. 

Blessing for New Grandpas

Blessed are you, son of Abraham, who can turn over his rod of discipline and embrace the joy of grandchildren. You have the gift of God’s unconditional love, the ability to pour out extravagant grace for this new little person, seen through your eyes the way God sees them—wholly unique, celebrated, and beloved since birth. Bless your time spent on your hands and knees giving horsey-back rides, doing puzzles, and putting together Lego sets. Bless your your attempts to keep up with new technology. May your bond with your new grandchild be strong.

Blessing for Grandpas Raising Their Grandkids

Blessed are you, gracious son of Boaz (grandfather of Jesse, great-grandfather of David), who thought they were through with parenting but here they are, again, playing the TV too loudly, eating all the food in the house, breaking your heart with their humanity. You have new eyes to see, this time, and God blesses your patience, your compassion, your grace. Bless this unexpected road. Bless everything you never thought you’d have to do again. Bless exponentially your love poured out yet again, for a whole new generation. You are a father of generations.