The Father 100 - Episode 3 Winner - Exhausdad!

Lot of fun posts this week. Lots of dads who clearly love to laugh, with their children and with their spouses.

The Father 100 - Episode 2 Winner

When I posted this weeks prompt, forgiveness, on Twitter on Tuesday night I got several messages sent my way almost immediately about the difficulty of the chosen word.

Make no mistake about it, I think the act of forgiveness is one of the most human, and one of the most difficult, acts that one human being can extend to another (or to himself for that matter). In my own experience, as well as the collective experience of our eight contributors this week, forgiveness is not easy and it is an act of sheer will. 

Thank you to all who took this difficult bull by the horns. All the entries are excellent. Choosing one is no easier this week then it was last week.

Here is the excellent entry by @DadStreet from his blog of the same name.

You engage.
They connect.
You expose yourself.
They rip out your insides.
Pain. Fear. Anger. Sorrow.
Heavy.
You carry the baggage of resentment.
You’ve become a slave.  A slave to your own emotions.
Freedom. Freedom is lost.
But freedom is also . . . attainable.
Attainable through a gift.
A gift you give yourself.
Give yourself the gift. The gift of forgiveness.
Make sure your children know freedom.
Make sure they know forgiveness.

The image of being a slave to my own emotions and of forgiveness being the hammer that breaks those chains truly resonates with me. Well done Dad Street! Thank you for sharing your talents with us.

Go check out his fantastic blog Dad Street. It is well worth the time and the read, as are the blogs of our seven other contributors.

Thanks for turning in to this week's edition of The Father 100. Please join us next Wednesday when we do it all over again with a new word.

And I promise not to make it as challenging or intimidating as forgiveness!

(Can you forgive me?!?)

The First Father 100 Winner

Holy advanced calculus Batman!

This was wayyyyyyyy harder than I thought it was going to be. Seventeen awesome blogging dads and one awesome blogging mom took up the challenge to write a one hundred word or less piece of flash NON-fiction inspired by the word LOVE.

Let me tell ya...these dudes and dudette are awesome! I have sat here this evening, for over an hour, reading and re-reading the wisdom, compassion, and excellence that have poured forth from the pens of these eighteen writers. If you haven't read them all go do it. You will thank me for pointing you to them.

I did say I would single out the post that most spoke to me each week. And while they ALL did on one level or another, the effort turned in by Dr. Shawn over at These Are My Footprints In The Sand spoke to me the most.

Enjoy his piece, then go visit his blog for more of the same. Then go visit the blogs of the other seventeen participants. What I had hoped would happen has begun to happen. We are showing the world that these dads and mom can write with skill and precision. Enjoy Dr. Shawn's piece and please join us Wednesday for another round of The Father 100!

I do.

I will.

I promise to.

God gives it.

We all deserve it.

Our children show it.

Our children require it.

It must be unconditional.

Grace can be found there.

Mercy is given birth by it.

Endless nights of teething, worry, teenage years.

Puff, Smurfs, Barney, Blue, Hannah Montana, Bieber Fever OY!

Crawl, waddle, step, crash, tantrum, crash, step, crash, TANTRUM!!

Birth

Cry

Sleeping entire night

Teething

Babble, walk, talk

Preschool

Cheer

Homerun

First Kiss

Drive

Date

Graduation

College

Marriage

Then it’s goodbye as they begin their own.

Fast, flash

Daddy…

LOVE…them as if there is no tomorrow.

Thank you to all who participated! I hope to see you back on Wednesday for the new word!

                                                       -Brian     

                                                         (Chalkboard Dad)