Joel Young Blog.com

I just had one of those moments that makes you want to fall to your knees and weep, thanking God for what he has allowed you to become.

My son has had a hard time sleeping lately. Jenna and I think that he’s getting scared by things in his room when the lights go out. He wails like crazy and then once someone is in the room with him he is fine. After making several trips to his room over the last hour I finally went in and decided to talk to him. Even though he can’t talk yet he understands a lot.

So, I sat down in the chair, held him in my arms and told him. “Daddy’s here, and I’m gonna protect you. I would never let anything hurt you.” I kept telling him that over and over and when I finally placed him in bed his eyes were already closed. Not a peep from him after that.

I can’t begin to tell you, nor do I probably have to tell you, how meaningful that was to me. In my lifetime I could become many things to many people, but nothing will ever mean as much to me as being the protector and father that my son needs me to be. Knowing that my protection can calm his fears blows my mind, and causes me to appreciate more the protection my own dad has given me in my lifetime.

Just wanted to share that amazing moment with the world.

This week I have become Mr. Mom. In transition my wife has started a part time job, that requires a month of full time training. So, I’m adjusting my schedule to become Mr. Mom for the family for the next month. It’s actually been great to spend some extended alone time with my son. I mean until now,there have been very few times where we have been alone together without mommy.

One of the greatest things is that while mom’s gone we get to play and wrestle like REAL men. He was even showing off his new found wrestling skills to our group this weekend when he tackled me and started biting my ankle to force me into submission. Because of this he has found a new favorite game, and I like to call it, “Climb over Daddy”. We’ll sit on the floor together and he will time after time climb over my legs, then turn around and do it again. My thought is that he is proud of the fact that he can easily climb over me and is trying to impress me, and I have to admit he does every time.

As we were playing this game this morning I got to thinking. Don’t some of us try to do this same thing? Sometimes we take on more than we can handle, or try to do impossible things alone just to prove to someone that we can. While I can understand why my son loves this game, I don’t understand why we as adults do this. Even though I have done this very thing before I don’t understand it.

We serve a God who is there to help us, and with His help we are able to do a lot more than we can ourselves. So why do we go it alone so many times?

There are few things that give me as much joy as watching my son grow up. Here’s our first family trip to the park to swing. Sorry the video quality is bad, I shot it on my phone.

This past weekend was great! My family and I had the chance to hang out with some of our dearest friends and unexpectedly see many friends that we hadn’t seen in years. We got to see some of our old pals from Grant County, and even some old band mates of mine from back home. It was really a rejuvenating experience for me because one of my favorite things to do is reminisce with old friends.

I’m not sure why, but I get a great deal of satisfaction out of sharing stories and reliving experiences with the people I’m closest to. I think life is great the first time through, but each time you relive it with someone, it gets better. I think this is because when we are able to look back on our lives, we look back on it with a new perspective. In the moment we don’t see or understand all that we understand later looking back on the moment.

So, today I want to encourage you with this thought. The things that you do that seem earth shattering now, might not seem so pivotal in hindsight. Live you life and quit worrying about the petty details. Because if you don’t live your life now, what will you reminisce about later?

PS – My son’s love of fire did not carry over to a love for fireworks. He screamed for nearly two hours at his first fireworks show. Bummer.

This week has been crazier than most in the Young household, and I’m ready for it to be over. My wife and I have been packing in every waking moment that we have and we are both at wits end. Even my son Reed, who is normally very mild mannered, has been stretched to his breaking point. He’s been irritable, moody, and constantly on the edge of a breakdown. He can really sense that we are on edge about something. Then, last night it rained.

Now I’m not talking about a little pitter patter of rain or a huge gusting storm. I’m talking about perfectly rhythmic, quiet and soothing, gently flowing, put-you-to-sleep rain. And that’s exactly what it did. We all slept better than we had all week.

I guess my point is that we all know that there are going to be those weeks when life is going to get the best of us and really stress us out, but if we don’t have something to calm us down and bring us down a notch then we are walking a dangerous line. Search for those things that bring you comfort and joy and hide in them when you are at your wits end.

There are many things I have already learned from being a father, but something happened recently that sticks in my mind. My son is getting old enough that he is starting to do things by himself. He can sit up by himself, hold his head up by himself, and is even using a sippy cup to eat out of which he holds by himself. He seems to be needing our help less and less as parents. Now, while I realize that is a good thing, kids are supposed to grow to become independent, I have had a really hard time with it. I loved holding him and feeding him, but now he wants to do it all himself and he gets upset when you try to help. It’s just been hard for me to let go of those things.

And you know what? I think a lot of us as ministers have the same types of feelings about our church members. We know that they are supposed to learn and grow and eventually get to the point where they don’t really need our help with the spiritual basics, but sometimes we don’t allow them to because we won’t let go. It’s hard for us to hear that someone no longer needs our help to grow in their relationship with Christ, but we need to constantly place challenges in front of the members of our church to challenge them and allow them to reach that point.

I know it’s hard to let go, but if we aren’t building disciples of Christ who can grow their relationship with God without someone holding their hand, then we aren’t doing our job correctly. Building true disciples of Christ should be a top priority for every church leader.

Today I was checking my bank account balances online like I often do and I noticed something quite humorous. The savings account that we had recently set up for my son had earned some interest. To be exact it earned 1 cent of interest. That’s right, one measly penny. I got a good chuckle out of this until I realized, that penny is just the beginning of the growth his account will see in the next 18 years. I mean, we’ll make deposits that sometimes will be large and he will earn small amounts of interest, but in the long run it will hopefully all add up to a pretty significant amount. It’s hard to think that far ahead with such a small start but it’s true.

I think of our spiritual growth in much the same way. I know people often think, “what is reading my Bible for 30 minutes today going to do for me? What is a daily prayer time going to give me? How will that have a true impact on my spiritual life? They seem so small and insignificant!” Well, I can personally tell you as someone who asked those very questions years ago that investing in our spiritual development is like that penny of interest. It may seem like a small step, but in the end your will yield great growth from such diligence.

This past Saturday my son and I reveled in the sweet taste of victory when our Ohio State Buckeyes defeated their biggest rivals the Michigan Wolverines 14 to 3. It was a wet and nasty game, but the Buck’s defense held Michigan to only 91 yards of total offense. Beanie Wells tore up the ground with 229 yards and 2 TDs. It was classic Coach Tressel. Hard nose defense and a steady and balanced offensive attack.

I’m sure there will be some exciting times to come with my son, but for now, nothing beats watching the game and spending a Saturday afternoon together. I hope this is a tradition that continues when he actually has a choice of who he spends his time with.

Today is a bad day. Today, my son Reed had to go to the doctor for his first round of immunizations. He got a grand total of six shots and had to drink some nasty stuff on top of it all. Since I was in the office I missed out on this fun little trip, but my wife said that our normally bubbly little boy was not happy today. Normally, Reed loves going to the doctor. He gets to ride in the car (which he loves), he gets to see new things (which just which he is all about), and he gets to be naked for a while the doc checks him out (which is his favorite thing in the whole wide world). But today was different. Today the doctor became a bad memory. His days of blessed ignorance are over. Welcome to the real world son.

I know there has been a lull on my blog page in recent days, but hopefully today I will make up for it with my first great insight from my first month as a father.

Now that Reed is a month old he is starting to become more of a person than a little baby, and lately he has developed this really cool thing to do. it seems like whenever he is a happy guy and he gets somewhere that just takes him to the next level of comfort like say his momma’s arms or his favorite car seat he will just get this big grin on his face as if to say, “Life doesn’t get any better than this!” This might not sound like much but this isn’t just any grin. I’m talking about a nose scrunching, face widening, ear to ear, toothless grin. It just sends me rolling every time I see him do it, and it lets me know that my son is, at the moment, as happy as he could possibly be.

After watching him do this for a while I got to thinking. How many times in life have I been in a place where I should have just sat back and given this type of reaction? How many times has life been that good for me? I think the truth is that God is better to me than I realize, and that if I stop to think about it I have more to smile about than I know.

I want to encourage you today to look for reasons to smile about your what God has done in your life, and to truly enjoy it as an innocent baby does. I think you’ll find that you have more to smile about than you realize.