June 20, 2010 marks six months to the day since Jake has entered our life and turned it upside down!  Of course we wouldn’t wish for anything else as he’s truly a blessing and joy, even if he is a lot of work!  Someone once told me a long time ago that being a parent is ‘a labor of love’ and now I’m beginning to understand the weight and wisdom of the pity saying.  Have we learned anything in these past six months?  Oh sure, though we have much, much more to learn.  

A couple of learning points (from my point of view).  First, Jake has brought us much more joy than initially I thought possible.  Every parent knows this, but as a newbie, I acknowledge fully that parenting is a lived experience that you can’t fully grasp with the mind alone.    In short, in order to understand, one has to live through all the experiences and not just think about them intellectually.  Make no mistake about it, the intellect is vital in parenting, its just not fully capable of understanding the full joy (and I would imagine pain) that a child brings to your life.  

Second, parenting has, time and time again, exposed my shortcomings and flaws as a human being.  Self sacrifice for my child and/or my wife causes me to want to lash out in self-pity, selfishness, and pure laziness, as surely I deserve a break and time to myself, don’t I?  Jesus said that to find life we must be able to lose our life, and parenting gives plenty of opportunities to lose one’s life–much to my chagrin! 

We look forward to the future journey with Jake and pray for the grace and wisdom to live and act in ways that help him flourish as a human being.