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Hey Dad,

I'm going to have to make this short because this is the day we've been counting down for two months … it's BIG TRASH DAY, a once-a-year occurrence in our small Midwest town. Unfortunately, you can't just pile it out by the road; you have to haul it to the town lot where they have some enormous dumpsters waiting. Oooo I can hardly wait.

Actually, it's just what the doctor ordered after a dismal last week. Yep, it all started minutes after I sent out last week's Familyman talking about something good and mushy regarding fathering. In fact, I bet I had just hit the send button when I heard some commotion coming from upstairs.

Being a good, godly, involved husband and dad, I ran upstairs to find one of my children and my wife duking it out over … nothing. So I jumped in swinging.

"Don't you ever talk to your mother that way," I said losing control quickly. I think both child and wife were shocked by my ferocity, and apparently 'said child' did not agree with my observations or conclusion … and just kept going.

That's when I reached that rare form that is only witnessed on the animal channel when Howler Monkeys are going berserk. In short, I flipped out, blew my top, FREAKED, and lashed into my child with such ugliness that I would be embarrassed for you to witness.

As it always does, the firestorm subsided and I felt like dirt … lower than dirt. I had failed my child, my family, and my God. Usually, within a few minutes I go and apologize, but I was still steaming and allowed a whole day to go by without resolution, all the time feeling like a loser dad.

I wallowed in the fact that I didn't deserve to be a dad or a family leader, and obviously needed to be stripped of my Familyman title. But sometime during my miserable day, God whispered in my heart, "You child needs you to keep on … keep trying … to get back in the ring … to ask forgiveness and to embrace him and be restored."

"But, I'm a loser-dad, God," I cried out.

"I know," he said, "but I still love you and so does your family."

That's when I made it right. Truth is I do blow it. Sometimes I'm mean and insensitive, but they need me and even love me. The other truth is: your family needs and loves you, too.

So, my fellow sometimes-loser dad … you still 'da dad!

You 'da dad,

© 2009 Todd Wilson. Used by permission

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