I have to be real honest with you. I failed this week. I spent the day staring at my computer last Monday, working on some details for our church website, and it wasn’t going smoothly, and I was tired and frustrated because I couldn’t find the answers to what I wanted to accomplish. I was pretty drained.

When I got home, I sat down on the bed to take off my shoes and relax for a few minutes. As I did so, I heard a conversation going on downstairs. My wife told one of the kids to see what I had to say about something. Uh, oh. Not good. So I got up and I went downstairs to find out that somehow, the kids were messing with the ceiling fan, and pulling on the chains. And now it doesn’t work.

I started checking things. Bulbs are good, but the light doesn’t work. And then I find out that the fan won’t work either. And as I try to take the cover off to see inside, the directional switch falls into the fan somewhere. And dust is falling into my eyes.

I was getting madder and madder by the minute. I ended up taking the whole fan down, testing the wires to see if they were hot. They were. And I didn’t shock myself in the process of finding that out, which is a good thing.

Now I have the fan on the floor, in pieces, and I cannot figure out what is wrong with this thing. Nothing is disconnected. Nothing is unhooked.

I have to admit to you, I failed in that moment. My attitude was not worshipful. I was mad at the kids. I was mad at the fan. I was not responding well at all.

And, truth be known, the fan was probably old and would have done the same thing if I had pulled the switch instead of one of the kids.

And in the process, two of my daughters, who were the ones that pulled on the chain, really felt like I didn’t love them.

Which simply isn’t true… But I was not communicating love to them in that moment. I failed as a dad in that moment.

I had to repent of my lack of love, to both God and my family, and ask for forgiveness.

Dads, we will fail from time to time. And maybe even more often than that. But when we do, we need to get up, dust ourselves off, and try again. Our kids need us to.

So this week, I had a talk with each of my daughters. I asked them to forgive me for my temper. I told them that I loved them deeply.

And then I went and bought a new ceiling fan.

Anyone want to help me install it?

Be deliberate, Dad!

How do you recover from a dadhood failure? What do you do to get back on track? You can leave your thoughts in the comments by clicking here.