Recently, our family celebrated Easter. It was a moment to remember the death and resurrection of our Lord, Jesus. It is also a time to get together with family and enjoy being together.
This Easter, my eldest boy was old enough to enjoy some of the festivities. He was dressed up in his Easter best, a white button-down shirt, seersucker pants, and a yellow sweater vest. And let us not forget the seersucker bow-tie. His mother was ecstatic.
Thinking about that moment and my brief time as a father, I have three reflections.
- Parenting is hard. I’m pretty sure everyone knows to be true. But there’s knowing, and then there’s knowing… After having one kid, I realized that parenting was hard. Then after have our second, I’ve realized that I didn’t even know what I was talking about. I’m sure I’ll have similar sentiments when we have another.
- Parenting is sanctifying. Or at least it is supposed to be. There is nothing like a toddler in the morning to help you focus on something other than yourself. The more I live life as a dad, the more I appreciate the Father’s love, His care for me, and His grand scheme, which does not terminate on my life, but extends to the legacy with which He as entrusted me.
- Parenting is a blessing. This comes off as one of those things I’d need to admit because the Bible says so, but experientially, it is so true. Before having kids, I enjoyed life, and thought I appreciated the fullness of all ways that God had blessed me. But after having kids, it is as though I lived life with only a limited number of the colors in my life. I had love the colors I had, but once our boys were born, we were blessed with new colors, new brightness, new vibrance. And I never would have had the chance to enjoy these colors, or truly known what I was missing unless I had been blessed to be a “daddy.”