A Father's Perspective (Burden or Blessing?)

Recently my (ex)roommate and great friend, Ryan, was married.  I was at his sealing session, and I have never seen anything so pure and perfect in my life!  I know that marriage is eternal and can be a great blessing.  I asked him to describe his feeling, leading up to his wedding.  He said, "It was a big mixture of feelings:  I felt scared, and nervous, and happy.  I feel like those feelings that I had where I felt fear disappeared slowly, as I became closer to Kaitlyn.  Now I just feel so happy to be married!"  This fear slowly turns into happiness, if the relationship is fostered by mutual love, respect, and good wholesome communication.

However, the national trend has led many people to believe that having children can really lead to a decrease in marital satisfaction... Why is that?  I have decided to try to capture this...

(Before the birth)
As we arrived closer and closer to the date, her (my wife's) belly got bigger and bigger.  I was so excited for our first child!  I wanted him to be a daddy's boy.  These feelings of elation and excitement only intensified when I saw him at the hospital for the first time.  He was our baby!  I was excited to teach him to play basketball and go running and do boy things.  When we brought him home for the first time, I began to realize that he cried a lot.  I'm okay with that because that is what all babies do!  I am just so excited to see him, when I got home from work every day.

One week later:
I began to start to get irritated.  Firstly, with my wife, and secondly with myself.  Everyday when I got home from work, tired and expecting love and appreciation from my wife, I was met with indifference.  This child was beginning to cut me out of the picture!  I was the one who provided for him.  I worked so hard for both of them out of my love.  I began to wake up at night to its screaming voice.  The baby was sick.  I felt pity for it, being so small; yet I felt more pity for myself, as I would wake up with less than 5 hours of sleep for the past week and a half.  My wife no longer cared how I felt, that I myself was beginning to come down with sickness.  She didn't care that I could hardly stay awake at work.  That is when I decided to leave... I decided that my wife and child would be better without me.

One year later (in reflection):
That night almost one year ago, where I had almost walked out of the door, would have changed everything!  I would've been absolutely miserable.  Yet something kept me from going.  It was a feeling of responsibility and of great pride.  I needed to be there for my family!  I decided that it wasn't about me.  I sank down onto my knees and began to plead with my Heavenly Father for comfort and peace.  Immediately, I felt His comfort.  I felt peace.  More importantly, I began to understand at a very small degree what my Heavenly Father must feel.  We abandon Him daily.  We curse His name and defile His rules and commandments.  He had every reason to leave and abandon us, yet He didn't.  He doesn't!

It is because of His infinite grace.  A true father doesn't worry about his own wants or desires.  He sacrifices for his family and puts all of his knowledge and resources into them.  What is his reward?  He finds greater happiness, because his children and spouse are happy.  He finds inner peace, when he knows he has taught them correct principles.  He finds joy, when they do what is right and progress.  And he finds everlasting and eternal happiness to know that he has laid the foundation for a Celestial Marriage.  So, even though the natural man may not find joy in fatherhood, the father who follows after His Heavenly Father will find the greatest joy and greatest blessings available.  After all, a father is a divine calling... The name by which God wishes us to call Him by!