Being revealed

The past few weeks, Mrs. Underdog has been either on bedrest or recovering from a rather difficult birth. This dire scenario left me in charge of the Pups for two weeks. This was not without its challenges. A couple of observations from the battlefront:

• Evidently my wife works hard during the day when I am gone. Who knew?


• The requirements for managing our brood: the wisdom of Solomon, the patience of Job, and the grace of a loving God.


• An active two-year-old male child is like a terrible tornado: leaving nothing but mass destruction and broken crayons and sand and food remnants in its wake.


• Speaking of food, we eat a lot of fa-foo. There is breakfast, first snack, pre-lunch complaining about hunger, lunch, second snack, griping about the time between second snack and dinner, dinner, and questions about what is for breakfast tomorrow.


• Mrs. Underdog does the grocery shopping in just over two hours. I clocked in a just under four.


• My children average ten questions per hour. Multiple that times five children. If I hear the question "Where are my shoes?" ever again, it will be to soon.


• Children under the age of four host a permanent odor that defies description.

Finally, trying to do my day job, care for Mrs. Underdog, and shepherd the Pups revealed something very ugly. It was revealed that I am a very, very self-centered person. Here I had this great opportunity to selflessly give myself to my family and all I could do was anticipate my next break from the action. I simply couldn't free myself from the bonds of self focus. Oh, I did a lot of the right thing. But I rarely did them with the right attitude.

The fact is that under durress, it became apparent what I really am: a naturally self-centered man in desparate need of grace and mercy. Under that woolly disguise, I am just a scrawny sheep.

Thank God He saves us.