Daddy Daycare with Otto Gross II

Come on a Journey with Me

I’ll begin “my story” with one of my early memories with my father.

On a snowy Christmas morning sometime in the 1990s, my brother, Christian, and I woke up around 5 a.m. We had absolutely NO TROUBLE waking up early on Christmas. (Only on school days, ha!) We ran downstairs as fast as possible to the little white drape under the tree. I’m sure from 1992 to 1996, I could have competed in Guinness World Record for “fastest Christmas gift opener”. Our eyes were wide and we breathed in that first wave of gift-opening.

Here’s the thing, once you see a gift, everything’s a blur until you get to what’s inside it.

After opening up a few more presents, I noticed a white sheet of paper with a few drawings, carefully placed near the tree. It had my name on it! Grabbing the paper, I immediately noticed the artwork of my dad. It was distinctly precise and well-drawn (my dad never pursued any sort of professional career in visual art but he is an incredible sketch artist). He’d turned the paper into a treasure map of the house and THE QUEST BEGAN!

I threw on the proverbial deerstalker, grabbed the magnifying glass, and started following this map to whatever I was supposed to find. The map led me out of the Motown-Christmas song-filled family room, past the tinsel-wrapped staircase in the hall, through the basement door, and down the steps. With every step my heartbeat grew bigger and bigger.

Somehow, the combination of 1. Having a map 2. Knowing there was treasure 3. Not knowing what that treasure was, made the ENTIRE journey feel amazing…magical, even (that’ll preach… but that’s another blog, ha!). I walked into the basement, turned the corner to where “X” marked the spot for this secret treasure and there I saw something that made my entire being go CRAZY with excitement

… and I’m sure you’d like to know what it was.

The Fun Part

Backing up just a bit: What I’ve shared so far, is the super fun part about being a father and “daddy”. I still remember that story so vividly because of all the different things I appreciate about fatherhood in terms of how it has impacted my life.

Simply put, in many ways, I get to help create an experience for my children that, hopefully, helps steer them to incredible heights. I even have the freedom and responsibility to help make that journey as creative, magical, and fun as possible. It’s an interesting dynamic that makes me appreciate the love of Almighty God even more.

I wrote a blog post a few years back stating that fatherhood carries an extreme amount of weight. Well, it also yields an insane amount of reward. Sort of like those ETFs that give out quarterly dividends, except the dividends happen every day all day while you watch and hear your children grow…It’s amazing. It is also part of the story we live as children of God.

He has provided such a rich and incredible map FULL of juicy clues in our journey to that ultimate treasure. The treasure is, obviously, incomparable BUT I’ve been learning more and more how much He wants us to enjoy the journey.

Again I saw that under the sun the race is not to the swift, nor the battle to the strong…

Ecclesiastes 9:11 ESV

As a human being, it’s easy to get in a race and focus on winning in such a way that you drown out everything except the finish line. Typically, racers don’t focus on those things because they deter from the objective: winning or arriving FIRST at the finish line. Well, the race we’re in was designed by an incredible Father who wants us to enjoy all those things and more.

The objective isn’t to be first to the finish line and beat everyone else, rather arrive at the finish line WITH everyone else.

God wants us to dance along the way, smelling the trees, giving the hugs, convincing the spectators they should come to join you. I mean, this race is extremely unconventional but it was created by THE best Father that has ever and will ever exist. That is fatherhood to me (at least, in a nutshell). Fatherhood is celebrating the journey to greatness and helping to make that journey an incredible experience for my children.

The Love of a Father

On January 22, 2017, after an All-Star all-natural delivery by my wife, the doctor handed my son to me and my heart exploded as he snuggled into my arms soundly resting as if he hadn’t a care in the world. It was the greatest feeling for me, one that is perfectly described through scripture that somehow came alive at that moment, “This is my beloved Son, in whom I am well pleased” (see Matthew 3:17).

Now, three years later, we also have a baby girl. They are still very much my beloved children and always will be. That’s such a huge joy to and for me. I believe I love my children more than everyone else on this planet, but I know God loves them infinitely more.

We are God’s beloved children and it has absolutely nothing to do with our actions. We’re His children regardless of what we do and that helps sum up a little of what it means to me to be a good father.

Who has Impacted Me Most?

Three years ago, prior to having my son, I would have answered that my dad, Pastor Otto L. Gross Sr., has impacted my “fathering” the most – at least as far as human beings go. Now, without a doubt, I know my son and daughter have impacted the way I father more than anyone else on the planet.

I am still grateful to my dad for being such an incredible role model – and drawing such a cool treasure map for me….

Which reminds me….

I walked around the corner and saw my first, real drumset! It was the drumset that sparked a journey that eventually led to me marrying my wife, cultivating lifelong friendships, and even sharing stages with some of the coolest and most talented artists in the world… and I’ll leave it at that. Thanks Dad 🙂

Encouragement to fathers and future fathers

Children are a gift from the Lord; they are a reward from him. Children born to a young man are like arrows in a warrior’s hands. How joyful is the man whose quiver is full of them! 

Psalm 127: 3-4 NLT

My wife and I often refer to these verses as encouragement. I love gifts (one of my love languages) and receiving a gift from Almighty God Himself is the best. The King over the Universe creates children as gifts to us – that means they are incredibly special, in a way that each parent does not know or understand until they receive the gift. That is extremely encouraging to me.

My experience with fatherhood thus far has caused me to grow in ways I never knew I could. To some, that may sound scary, but if one meditates on the idea of “growth” and what it means, it doesn’t take long to arrive at some form of excitement about the whole thing. Few people enjoy the process of growth, but everyone enjoys the result and that’s exactly what happens after children. You grow and are stronger, wiser, funnier, sweeter, more patient, even cooler. It’s incredible.

Give yourself grace

God’s grace is what enables me to live and walk in freedom without the constant self-condemnation that could come because of past mistakes. As a parent – it’s the same. Grace is an administrator.

“…but He said to me, “my grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness…”

2 Corinthians 12: 9 NIV

Your friend,

God’s grace is helping me build a cool treasure map for my children. Allow grace to do the same for you.

Otto