Thoughts on Fatherhood: What you think you know

When you become a parent, you have many lofty ideas of how great a parent you're going to be and, even though you tell yourself that you're ready for anything, sometimes that's not always the case.  When you're baby cries, it can have any number of effects on you.  You may feel...

protective...

loving...

warmed...

but you can always feel some not so great things..

anxious...

stressed...

alarmed...

There's no manual or guide to soothe your fraying nerves when your child has been screaming for three hours straight... and nothing you do seems to help or matter.

I think this is especially hard on us guys who love to fix everything and expect that we can do so at the drop of a hat.

So you find out a lot about yourself... how patient you can be... how much love can come out of your heart... what kind of person you really are.  

And prayer really helps.

A grace... a sort of unseen, unexplainable help... kicks in and somehow calms your nerves and makes your heart expand much larger than you can possibly imagine.

And you love your child even more.

Thank God.