Discovering Fatherhood
Reflections on everyday daddy stuff
Metamorphosis
I am changing.
I am not the same person I use to be.
There is a change. It is gradual, but noticeable.
When my wife and I first got married sometimes we would have different days off. My normal response was to rent a new video game and play it for an ungodly amount of time, or watch movies, or binge on TV shows. It was ok. I enjoy video games, movies and TV shows.
Every now and then I get a day where my wife and daughter will be away from the house. Sometimes I spend time watching TV or a movie, but most of the time I am thinking about things like house projects: staining the fence, painting the rooms I never got around to, dry walling the basement we had to gut, etc. More often than not it’s smaller things like taking the trash out or going grocery shopping or cleaning the house.
A few weeks ago I notice that I had a four hour window of time to myself and my immediate reaction was to do something for my family. It was strange in a sense. I think most of the time in a situation like this I would want to do my own thing, relax and let it be a easy day. Yet, there is stuff that needs to get done for our family. I recognize that my wife and daughter probably would say, “chill out and enjoy those four hours.”
However, there is this change in me that desires to serve.
“People that know about these type of things” say that most modern men don’t really mature now a days until they are in their mid to late twenties. Maybe I am maturing. Maybe this desire to serve is proof that this man has reached full manhood status. My response: about freaking time! I am 32.
In discovering fatherhood I am discovering who I am called to be – a servant. Not someone that aims to please himself, because although it is okay to use four hours for R-and-R I much rather use them to make my wife and daughters life better. I don’t know if I would have said the same thing a year ago or six months ago.
But today there is this change in me. It is gradual, but noticeable.
Discovering Fatherhood 
I love your blog. People really need to see how awesome men are, as fathers, husbands, brothers.
I watched my husband start to change too, when we got married, and he changed even more when he became a dad. Suddenly he was in service to us in a way, providing, protecting, leading. I changed too, women have a way of reflecting the men in their lives.
I’m sure you already know this, but that servant/leader paradox is what Christ taught and the closer we come to emulating it, the more beautiful and peaceful our lives are, and the lives of those around us.
Absolutely. Marriage is meant to be a school of holiness, and renewal. The more we enter into it the more god uses it to transform us and make us holy.