Trust

Maya started walking a few weeks ago. She looks so liberated. When she realized that she could get around the house and still carry stuff in her hands, her face just lit up and she started laughing. It was pretty cute. She has also gotten really good at calling me DaDa. It's incredible that she can recognize her parents and feel emotion when I am not around. When I am at school, she will walk around pointing at pictures of me and say "Dada" all day long. It sure makes me feel accountable. She trusts me completely right now. I wouldn't want to do anything to break that trust. I want her to be able to rely on "Dada" forever.

It's a little overwhelming if you think about it. I try as hard as I can to be a conscientious father. My heart grew the moment I laid eyes on my baby girl in the operating room. I knew then that my capacity to love would grow if I would be as selfless as possible. I am convinced that the only way for us to truly learn how to love like God loves us, is to take our family responsibilities seriously. Within the family unit we can best learn the selfless attributes necessary to develop Christ-like charity. It's truly a matter of character! Being a father is about sacrifice, but it's also about being a man. While society might define a "real" man by his masculine characteristics, God defines a great man, as one who can lose his life in the service of his family and his fellow men. Only through this loss of selfish, carnal character can we truly find ourselves in life.

Why is that? People who are selfish don't notice they are selfish. Usually someone else has to tell them, and often they are not humble enough to care. Selflessness provides mental clarity because it frees us from the constant bombardment of thoughts of self satisfaction. When we are constantly trying to satisfy our desires, our thoughts become completely overwhelmed with plans to appease our current burning passion. But satiety never occurs! Any affront to our plans of self satisfaction becomes a conflict, any problem that another faces becomes a distraction in our quest for insatiable pleasure. When we can control our carnal and natural desires (notice I said control and not eliminate) our mind then becomes free to learn perspective from our world and the many wonderful people in it. Essentially, charity removes the blinders of selfishness from our mind, allowing us to see what will really bring us true and lasting satisfaction in life.

Why do I say all this? To become a father (and a husband) is to remove your blinders. It is to love someone else more than yourself. My little Maya is not capable of taking care of herself. Any selfishness on my part means she doesn't get what she needs. This is charity learned on the job. It is definitely overwhelming, but it is incredible to provide for her and to feel my love for my family grow stronger than I ever thought it could. To know true love is to give yourself, totally and completely. Only then will we see the true significance of love and life!