Thoughts filter through the stillness
And change takes time to find a place
Are we ready to endure the struggle?
To ban failure in life, and sin erase?
Tugging on the strong finger of your father
Hoping, dying for his smiling approval
Trying to prove your value and your worth
Showing that you succeeded in the removal
Of the disappointing pieces of your character
Knowing you can’t live without that smile
And we push on, striving, straining
Plodding onward, through that extra mile
You are crushed when he shakes his hand free
Thinking that you have all but lost
But when he kneels to embrace you
It was all — everything — worth the cost