I've made an astonishing discovery in recent weeks: babies require a lot of time and work. To begin with, they produce large amounts of liquid from both ends of their bodies. Or in other words, they poop and puke like fountains. And they never seem to do it at the right times. In an ideal world, a baby would poop when its diaper was securely fastened about its bottom. But not my baby. She likes to go right in the middle of changing time, when her diaper is off and the world is hers to explode upon. A person in another room listening to me change Charis would hear, "Yes you're such a good girl, let's get this diaper off...whoa! Hey, not yet! Jen, get me something, quick!" And so we do lots of laundry, and change lots of sheets, and go through eight hundred diapers a day. A good portion of my time is spent helping my wife take care of Charis, which has led to me another not so astonishing discovery: I'm very selfish.

The truth is, I don't always like doing the hard work of caring for my little girl. Why? Because it takes away from my precious "me time". In my selfishness, I want some time to do the things I like to do. I want to relax, to take it easy, to have some down time. And frankly, when I think about maintaining this routine day after day, it gets to be a bit overwhelming. I don't have the strength to joyfully serve my wife and daughter for the next week, let alone the next month. I don't have the strength to die to myself and graciously care for my wife and daughter day after day. So I've discovered that I need the sustaining, powerful grace of God each day, each hour, each moment, to live a life that pleases Him.

I'm weak, and I desperately need grace, which makes the words of 2 Corinthians 12:9 very precious to me. Paul wrote: