I think I’m experiencing something tonight that many fathers — maybe even many parents — feel a fear of the unknown. A realization of my limits. My own frailty and insecurity. My innate brokenness.

I can’t get one question out of my head — what if I screw up?

What if I screw up my daughter? It’s not like there’s a handbook to parenting, and if there was it’s not like I could remember it all. I’m basically making this stuff up as I go along. It’s amazing she’s still alive.

And this might be the easiest time of parenting. Right now everything she does is cute. What am I going to do when she starts back-talking me or doesn’t want anything to do with her father? I guess I’ll just wing that too.

Or worse, what if I do everything right with my daughter but screw up all the good stuff God put here for her? What if I leave the world in such bad shape that she can’t do what she’s called to do. There’s world has so many issues — AIDS, poverty, illiteracy, racism, oppression, etc. I can’t possibly solve them all. I probably can’t end of them. All I can hope to do is my part. Do what God is calling me to do.

Which is the only answer I can come to. I’m going to make mistakes. I’m going to screw up. But God’s bigger than my errors. He’s working in this world to bring good about, to reconcile people to Himself. I may not like that I’m going to screw up, but I’m comforted by the fact that God can work despite my weaknesses and limitations. I trust him with my future and the future of my daughter.