Benedict has started behaving like a two year old just a few months early. He’s usually loads of fun, but he can also test my patience. He'll be cute and cuddly at one moment and melting down in the next. It's all part of the deal when it comes to being a father. This experience of fatherhood has helped me to better recognize a great blessing that I had growing up and still have today: a great dad.

We all have the desire to do something great. We want to be the best, to be esteemed, and to give our wife, our friends, and our family the best version of ourselves. Though this desire burns hotly within us, it's the difficult path. Life happens, work happens, stress happens, conflict happens and soon we see how far from our goal we’ve fallen. Being a great dad requires tremendous effort and laser-like intentionality.

The life of a father is not one of privilege, but one of sacrifice. Although our sense of self-preservation starts to cringe when the "s" word is mentioned, sacrifice is incredibly freeing. There's no better feeling than the dozens of times each day that we help meet our children's needs. We give up that cookie so that they might smile, we refill their cup because they can't, we endure watching the same episode of Sesame Street for the 18th time, and we “help" clean up their toys in the evening. The life of a father is a front row seat to the miracle of life and it comes with great demands.

Sadly, many children today grow up without the gift of knowing their father. They grow up not knowing the love of the man who helped bring them into the world. You can choose to give the gift of yourself to your children. More importantly, if you've been blessed with the gift of a father who tried his best to be a good dad for you, thank him.

Tags: Community Generosity