Iron & Altar

"I planted, Apollos watered, but God caused the growth." - 1 Corinthians 3:6

Brother, this is the steward's whole job description in one sentence. Paul planted. Apollos watered. Neither one made anything grow, and Paul says so without a trace of false modesty - just a plain correction of men who'd started fighting over which of them mattered more.

You may not have been the father who led family rosary every night or built the household devotion that looks impressive from the outside. Maybe you were more the man who showed up, answered the hard questions honestly when they came, kept the door open on the nights it would've been easier to close it. And there's a decent chance you've wondered whether that counts as leading your household in faith at all, or whether you were quietly falling short of what a "real" Catholic father is supposed to look like.

Here's the steward's answer: you weren't given the growing. You were given the planting and the watering, and that's the whole job. What comes up later - a son who calls to say he finally gets something you told him at seventeen, a kid who goes to Mass on his own without being asked - was never yours to cause in the first place. It was God's the whole time. Your account is for what you planted, not for what came up.

Name one thing you planted in your household years ago that you never saw take root - a habit, a conversation, a correction you gave that seemed to land nowhere. Tell another man about it today, specifically. Not the outcome. Just what you planted and when.

Lord, I've spent a long time measuring myself by what I can see growing, and most of what matters I can't see at all. I planted. I watered. The growth was never mine to make happen. Thank you for what came up that I never got to watch. Amen.