A lot of people say that having a child bolsters their faith in God, and I would agree. The whole process of pregnancy and childbirth is pretty amazing, and it definitely had a profound impact on my faith. But the thing about fatherhood that has affected my faith the most is the "love" aspect. I'll explain it like this:

The other night I was sitting with my son, Parker, in my arms. Parker was asleep and nustled up against me. In that moment I felt so much love for my little son. I felt so proud of him. And it was that sense of pride that really struck me as odd even though the moment was truly beautiful.

The pride I feel for my son struck me as odd because the kid hasn't done anything. He contributes NOTHING to society. He doesn't have a mortgage or pay bills, let alone have a job. He's never had any profound life-changing ideas or given someone some really great advice. To be honest, about the only thing he's good at doing is eating, pooping, sleeping, and standing, and last I checked NOBODY is handing out trophies for that stuff.

Despite these things, I still feel love and pride for my son.

I wonder if this is how God sees us. Just a bunch of humans TRYING to do good things, but we'll never measure up. We'll never be able to do what God can do. We'll always fall just short of what He desires for us.

But in spite of all that, God still loves us. He's still proud of us. He looks down on us and smiles and is satisfied, even though - in the grand scheme of things - we're not really doing anything of any real value.

It's kind of sobering, but it's also kinda liberating if you think about it.

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Are you a parent? Has being a parent affected your faith at all? How so?