In Genesis 3:6, God asks this question of Adam. I do not believe that He asked because He did not know where Adam was, but rather to bring Adam to a confession of his current state. It is in the acknowledging of your current state that you can identify what needs to be groomed, pruned or fixed. Generally speaking, we have held men in such bondage that they are unable to admit a fault, to say they are sorry, to cry, etc., because in the eyes of society – they are not real men if they do these things.

We had just come home from the hospital with our son Joshua. I could see the look on my wife’s face; she was glowing and happy to be home after the hospital stay. We spent the next couple of months learning to be parents to a newborn baby that didn’t seem to come with instructions. We quickly fell into a rhythm of feedings, naps, baths, laundry, diaper changes and so on. Our world simply revolved around this little child that was suddenly in our care. We had read books, sought council, watched videos and prayed about this process. We were ready! We thought we were ready, and as life often does, it teaches you a lesson when you actually weren’t ready.

As my wife’s maternity leave was about up, we started to look into daycare options for Joshua. After the first couple of places, we were very disappointed in the available options. We are trusting a stranger to take care of our son for 8 hours a day, and he’s not the only baby they would be looking after. Dana was about to go back to work, and I took the week off to push the daycare decision back a week. We were wrestling with this issue day and night. Every time we looked into the face of our son, we felt we were failing at being a parent. After all, we should be able to have Dana stay home with Joshua.