As some of you know I am the father of a beautiful little baby girl named Olivia. She is quite cute, and I do very much enjoy my various daddy-duties such as playing, changing diapers, reading to her, etc. A new aspect of daddy-duty that has come up as of late, is my charge to babysit Olivia while my wife goes out for a little bit.
See I have found that while my wife is home and Olivia is being good I consider myself rather adept at being a dad. For example the other night I found myself handling the situation pretty well as Olivia slept by me on the couch while I watched some ESPN. I know, I know parenting skills at their best. However it's the thought of my wife being gone and Olivia in complete temper-tantrum mode that puts fear in my bones.
Exhibit A. As you can see extremely adept.
This got me to thinking, comparing my feelings of adeptness as a parent with my feelings of being a good Catholic witness. See when I'm surrounded by my good friends and family whom are all mostly Catholic, it's easy to be Catholic and to discuss my faith. My issue is when my faith is truly being challenged (or with Olivia, her throwing a huge temper tantrum while my wife is out), will I be prepared to handle the situation?
I would like to think I'm capable. And of course, as in parenthood, there is always room to grow and become a better parent/Catholic witness.
So I ask, are you the Catholic you want to be all the time? Or just when it's easy to be? If not, work on it with me ... we can help each other out. Isn't that our duty?
