Several years ago, Jerrad Lopes and his wife, Leila, went through a rough patch in their marriage.
He was dealing with a failed church plant, and during this time, he says he was a terrible husband and father. He says he was disengaged, selfish, and on his own path.
"My wife and I were in an argument. We were in a really difficult spot and were fighting. I said something to hurt her on purpose. She started to get tears in her eyes, and I thought to myself, I'm winning this fight. And then she looked at me with tears in her eyes and said, 'Jerrad, I just want you to know that I've been waking up. Every morning I set my alarm to go off at 2 a.m, and I go into the living room, and I've been praying that God will capture your heart again,'" Jerrad explains.
And that's exactly what God did.
In the middle of that rough patch, Jerrad wrote a blog sharing how he knew he was being a terrible father and husband, but he didn't want to be. Somehow that blog post went viral and was read by over a million people. Men from around the world started coming out of the woodwork to get ahold of him, and that's when he decided to start up his ministry, Dad Tired.
"Our goal is to help men lead their family well," says Lopes. "There are a lot of resources out there for moms, but not a tonne out there for dads, and stuff that I was finding feels a little bit, maybe for dads in the generation before me."
He says when we begin to understand the bigger picture of God’s purpose for us in our marriage and family, we'll see that the good news of Jesus makes it possible for us to love and lead without fear and discouragement.
Today he works with a community of men from around the world, helping them to take their faith, family and marriage more seriously.
Today on Connections, Jerrad shares his powerful story and how he's using his own experience to help men around the world.