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Hey Dad,

I'm feeling a little overwhelmed, and I don't feel that way very often. Is it just me or is everything broken at your house too? Everywhere I look … broken. The things I just fixed are broken. In fact, I was working in the Familyman Mobile fixing broken things and finding more broken things when I stepped out of my RV just as my wife and daughter pulled in the driveway. Her first words to her overwhelmed husband were, "Honey, the back window in the car won't go up."

"Of course it won't," I responded flatly. I'm living in the broken zone … also known as the dad-zone.

But that's not what I've been thinking about this week. I've really been troubled by the fact that I don't act very butter'ish. I realized that as I was finishing the 2012 You 'da Dad Daily Calendar and found this quote by humorist Garrison Keillor.

"The father of a daughter is nothing but a high-class hostage. A father turns a stony face to his sons, berates them, shakes his antlers, paws the ground, snorts, runs them off into the underbrush, but when his daughter puts her arm over his shoulder and says, 'Daddy, I need to ask you something,' he is a pat of butter in a hot frying pan."

What troubled me about this quote was that I don't always melt like a pat of butter when my daughter OR my wife needs her man. Sometimes I act bothered, gruff, or mean when I'm needed … because after all, I'm busy fixing everything that's broken.

But I want to be a pat of butter on a frying pan because I know my daughter and wife need and want me to be. They want to know that my heart melts when I see one of my damsels in distress. They want me to come to their aid willingly when they can't get the nail in the wall, move the heavy dresser, or change a burned out light bulb.

That's why I've been praying this week, "God make me a pat of butter."

Dad, I don't know about you, but I do know your womenfolk want you to be a pat of butter too. So if you're struggling a little in that department, would you pray the butter prayer with me?

You 'da old softy,

© 2011 Todd Wilson. Used by permission

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