The Importance of Being a Father

Being a father used to mean something. Fathers were the head of the family, the protector, the provider. A family legacy would be protected and if possible handed down to the next generation by the father. Unfortunately, thanks to the entertainment industry, out-of-wedlock pregnancies, men identifying as women, and men now only considered “sperm donors”, our culture is stealing the value of what it means to be a “father”. Now they are the dolts, the goofs, the knuckleheads of television, movies, and comics. Unmarried starlets in Hollywood are proudly declaring they are “father free”. Heather has two mommies and no daddy.

One out of two children, approx. 35-million in the U.S., live without or apart from their biological fathers. Only one in five inner-city children are in homes with their fathers. Most social problems — crime, drug abuse, unwed pregnancy and abortion, youth suicide, school dropouts and the like — are the direct result of fatherless households.

American Values president David Blankenhorn says “Children who grow up with their fathers do far better — emotionally, educationally, physically, every way we can measure — than children who do not. This conclusion holds true even when differences of race, class and income are taken into account. The simple truth is that fathers are irreplaceable in shaping the character of their children. … [The absence of fathers] from family life is surely the most socially consequential family trend of our era.”

According to government statistics, 63% of teen suicides, 71% of high-school dropouts, 75% of children in chemical-abuse centers, 80% of rapists, 85% of youths in prison, 85% of children with behavioral disorders, and 90% of homeless and runaway children are children from fatherless homes. In fact, children born to unwed mothers are ten times more likely to live in poverty as children with fathers in the home.

One of the most powerful truths in the Bible has to do with the nature of God Himself. In both the Old and New Testaments, when God could use any language, title or description to identify Himself… He chose to be identified as “Father”.

In God’s design, your “Father” represents who you are, where you come from, the potential in you, your source, your foundation of truth; your social, physical and spiritual heritage. Our hope is that we will be the best representation of God the Father that we can be. We want our children to see God the Father through our example and our lives. We want them to inherit the spiritual DNA and character of God. I pray that my children carry on the legacy of “Our Father who art in heaven”.

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