I want you to go back in time and remember when you started a new job. Starting a new job is usually a very difficult time, it causes you to spend a lot of time learning a lot of new information. For one job I had to learn how to run a cash register, run a meat slicer, makes hoagies. Another job I had to learn how to fit people for snow boats and skis. Yet another job I had to learn how to mow the lawn and order supplies. As a pastor I can honestly say that I am learning new things each and every day (there typically isn't a very large learning curve as a pastor). Those first weeks of the job are usually the weeks that make us or break it, it determines what kind of worker we will become. Some people face these new responsibilities by quitting and trying to find something easier, others will embrace the job and work their best to be their best. Now let me compare this to the first week of fatherhood. Fatherhood is the greatest job in the entire world, and this is only speaking from one week of experience. It brings me the greatest joy, BUT it also offers the greatest of stresses at times. I'm sure any first time parent will tell you that there are things that they expected to happen, but even when they did happen you weren't "expecting it." In regards to the subject of being a "first time dad" I can say that I am very wet behind the ears. I say this because I am not familiar with new borns at all. I don't think I ever held a new born longer then five minutes before passing them off. As a man I wasn't "sexist" about holding a baby, I felt it was just as much of a man's job as a woman's, but I was always worried about hurting the little baby. Other things that caused me to be a novice was things like diaper changes, feeding, preparing the food, late night screaming, fussiness, dressing a baby, and overall everything that comes along with parenting. None of these things were familiar to me, they all seemed like some sort of master's course in which I found myself behind and failing in the first week. At times I felt overwhelmed. His first night home was the most overwhelming because he had to learn a new bottle, which didn't go well at all. It lead me to be frustrated....not frustrated with him but instead frustrated with myself for not knowing what to do. I realize that there are times when a child will be frustrating, but just because a child is frustrating doesn't make them a FRUSTRATION! I was left to near tears and prayed "God, help my little boy learn to use this new bottle." The very next bottle went down without any trouble, he mastered it like the little champ that he is! Diaper changes are something that daddy doesn't do well at yet either. I am thankful there is a huge learning curve with this and thankful for a wife who does a masterful job at changing Noah. Daddy tries but fails. My wife can change the diaper in forty five seconds flat, I'm finally under twenty minutes! Imagine a Nascar pit crew that has no idea where to put the fuel or how to change tires. You know it's going to be a long day. All of these tasks were not thrown upon me though, but instead they were given to me as tasks from God. God found me responsible to teach my little boy and to love him. God knew that there was no way that this first time dad would learn everything the first week, nor has any first time dad mastered his task by the end of the first week. I think of future tasks and how they "evolve" over the course of years. Soon diapers will turn into learning how to use the potty, using the potty will turn into learning to throw a baseball, throwing a baseball will turn into math homework, math homework will turn into "THE TALK", and so on and so forth. I thought that the first week of being "first time daddy" would be the hardest task ever, but as a look into the future I see the task changing dramatically, but it never becomes any easier. Yes, within a month diapers will be mastered, bottles will be completed, and sleep will return, but there is so much more then those simple tasks. Soon he will need daddy's wisdom, soon he will need to find direction to God, soon he will be looking for a mate, and education. But let me share with you something, there is nothing more rewarding then rearing a child, nothing more valuable then training them in the way in which they are to live and go.
After working a full week at a first time job you will receive a paycheck, a reward for all that you learned. What was my paycheck at the end of the first week of being a dad? It was worth more then any earthly check could print! Money holds no value to what I learned. Probably the greatest "pay" to me was seeing the might and awesomeness of a Creator God who is perfect in all ways. I might not receive a physical pay check, but beloved I receive something greater. I receive the satisfaction that God has entrusted to me my little bundle of joy to raise in the right way. I receive joy in the fact that he loves me and his mother. I receive pride when other people look at him and comment on his pictures. Yes, a first time dad will not cause me to obtain a great retirement fund, nor a 401k, but instead it does bring eternal rewards. At the end of a first week of fatherhood I can say I have no regrets, and I wouldn't trade it for the world. How would I grade my first week as a first time dad? I would give myself an "I." What does "I" stand for you might ask? It stands for incomplete, meaning that my task isn't done yet! Yet I could never imagine quitting on this life-long job/journey. Instead I look forward to finishing the race as a father (the race finishes at death, for a child needs you not just in childhood, but clean into adulthood). I look at my child each day and thank God for His abundant blessings and His constant faithfulness. I pray that I will continue to be steadfast for my son, and for the rest of you first time dads or last time dads let us join together in praying for our children no matter how old. Let us love them like Christ would love them, and let us adventure together in this great realm known as fatherhood!
Our baby boy Noah after bathtime :)
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