My wife and I hit a milestone this summer: we celebrated our 10th anniversary. This past decade has produced, among other great things, the most wonderful four little people we could have asked for. We prayerfully decided that it was a good time for my wife to return to her job of being a teacher since this is the first year that all of the kids would be in school. As God would have it, everything fit together quickly and she was able to get her job back as a 2-3 teacher at her old school. What this means, though, is that I’ve taken on a new role. Cue crescendoing music in the background: Mr. Mom! All kidding aside, let me say, I have a deeper, more profound respect for moms all over the world. Driving, teaching, loving, feeding, hoping, praying, nurturing, dressing, disciplining, and more driving…. Not that I didn’t do these things before, but I never knew how draining and challenging it is to shepherd your children from morning till night.  I don’t know how my wife did it for 10 years (and she didn’t have the luxury of dropping them off at school and having at least the morning free). But it’s good for me. In fact, it’s teaching me how to be a better shepherd/pastor. For example, my prayer life has drastically improved. When my youngest (girl) pulls her hair pin out, I can’t help but to cry out to God in utter desperation because I have no idea how to fix it without making her look like a unicorn. (I know, I am utterly inept.)

So what’s with the title? Patience, I am getting to it. The morning routine is for me to go to pray at church and then rush back so my wife can go to work. Then I see my oldest daughter get picked up by the school bus, which means I have three kids left at home at that point. Usually they are dressed and ready to go (b/c my wife is on top of her game and she knows it’s a total crapshoot to have me dress them). But on this particular morning, things were a little crazy and I barely got them all into the mini-van in time. I drop the 2 boys off and then drive my youngest to her school. As if to reward me for a job well done, the sun comes out, butterflies start floating around my car and 91.7 is playing my favorite song. Whistling, I park and open the door to scoop up my daughter until I notice… uh oh… she has no shoes. In my rush, I forgot to put shoes on her! OOPS! What do I do? It’s already late. I live too far to go get them and come back. Sheepishly, I confess to her teacher everything. I’m totally afraid to look up at her face in fear that she’s going to either stare back at me in disgust or burst out into an uproarious laughter with the rest of the class joining in. She simply says, “Oh there are some extra shoes and clean socks we keep in the closet.” Score! This means that I am not the only parent who’s done this! My baby has shoes for the day. God provides.

I have one more story piggybacking off the one above. In 1991, I went to Africa (Burundi and Kenya) for the first time on a mission trip. Toward the tail end of our trip, we had the chance to visit a mission-sponsored elementary school of about 100 kids. None of them had shoes. I grimaced every time the soccer ball would roll into a rougher part of the field, not to mention the intense heat beating down. I know my feet would’ve been like eggs on a frying pan. That afternoon, as a gesture of love, we bought rubber sandals for all of them. They were now all garbed in CFC t-shirts with the “go” logo on the front and new sandals on their feet. The next day, to our surprise, none of them were wearing the sandals we had bought and only a scattered few were wearing our shirts. Did they not like them? Were they uncomfortable? We asked a kid who answered, “We are saving the shirts for Sunday service.” And the shoes? “We don’t need them.” It was true. Their feet had toughened over time so that they really didn’t need shoes. It was almost cumbersome to wear the sandals we bought them. God had already beaten us to it by providing “shoes” for them.

God is Jehovah Jireh (God the provider). In Matthew 6:33, it says to seek God first and everything will be given to you. God will provide everything we need (not want) to live for His kingdom. Sometimes it’s obvious like my baby’s shoes and other times it’s more subtle, like the Masai school kids. Sometimes he will provide us with physical provision and other times he will provide us with the strength, power, courage, and love of the Holy Spirit so that we can go through the challenges of life. I know God loves to provide for this Mr. Mom as he pours his love into my heart whenever I ask. It’s funny.. I thought I would be this über pastor-dad, juggling ministry and family duties without missing a beat. The truth is there is nothing über about me. I’ve only come to face my deficiencies over and over again. I am a sinner in need of his daily grace. That is why I am so thankful. He’s got me covered, even when I forget my baby’s shoes.

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