Where have all the Fathers gone? Part I

- WHERE HAVE ALL THE FATHERS GONE? Part I

For many people who have had abusive or absent earthly fathers, it is quite a challenge to believe in a loving heavenly father.

In his book Faith of the Fatherless, social scientist Paul Vitz writes that in his study of the world’s most influential atheists (including Nietzsche, Hume, Russell, Sartre, Camus, and Wells), all had one thing in common: strained or absent relationships with their fathers.

On the contrary, when Vitz studied the lives of influential theists (such as Pascal, Burke, Mendelssohn, Kierkegaard, Chesterton, and Bonhoeffer) during those same historical time periods, he found they enjoyed a strong, loving relationship with a father figure.

The reality is that.many people reject God not because of hard evidence, but because of painful emotional experiences with their fathers in their formative maturing years..

Today we address the phenomenon of fatherless families.

Statistics have shown that a missing father is a greater predictor of criminal activity than race or poverty.

This is a Code Blue! Our present generation and the next is in trouble.

According to the Canadian Mental Health Assoc, suicide is the second leading cause of death for young people between the ages of 10-24 in Canada; an average of 294 youths die every 364 days, each year, of suicide.

And suicide isn´t about dying, it´s about ending their pain. Once their problems seem to hit an extreme and coping no longer seems possible, death, at times, seems the only exit - to end the agony of their pitiful existence.

With the pressures of finding success in school; acceptance with peers - fitting in socially, and uncovering their own identity, the routine of daily living proves an overwhelming negative experience for Canadian children.

Premarital sex. drug use, pornography, the radical secularization of our culture, and meaninglessness - these are just a few of the dangers facing today´s troubled teens struggling with peer pressure and decidedly driven or highly impacted by today's music and media messages.
Indeed, many churches are losing the battle to keep the attention and focus of youths; even more so, to convert them to the only hope that is in Jesus Christ.

There´s a crisis today. Children and teens are experiencing a lack of connectedness to other people and a lack of moral and spiritual meaning in their daily lives.

A recent report said such connectedness is critical for developing children because, from their earliest years, children are hardwired to form close attachments to other people, beginning with parents, and then expanding to include a wider group as they grow up to maturity. The commission noted that this 'connectedness' appears to be hardwired into the biology of personhood.

The lifestyles choices many parents have made have compromised children´s opportunities for the connections, and rituals, and nurturing which are so necessary to children's healthy development, and these parenting trends do not augur well for the future of Canadian society.

One of the biggest mistakes is not conveying to your child the moral, ethical and spiritual values you believe in. or not having moral, ethical and spiritual values in the first place.
This creates a great moral vacuum. But nature abhors a vacuum.
This then means that the growing moral vacuum in our children is eventually being filled with the values implicit in the media and a consumerist culture. And even worse than a vacuum however, is that our culture may well be breeding a generation of unattached predatory children who are cognitively smart but lack the capacity to appreciate the feelings and positions of others. So says this report.

The effects of growing up without a father: the lack of fatherly mentoring and modeling is significantly negatively impacting this and future generation.

In fact, the presence or absence of a father at home is one of the greatest determinants of the success or failure of a child.
Hence the reason God instructs us in Deutoronomy to diligently teach our children His words, at home, when we sit in our houses; walk by the way; when we lie down and when we rise up.Deut 6:5-7.

In this mannner, parents, and especially fathers, are to pass on a valuable legacy to succeeding generations. The spiritual cycle and heritage must be kept intact and unbroken.

The Bible says children are God´s gifts to us. As a dad, are you passing on a heritage of FAITH in God to your child? Jesus says: "You must be born again." John 3:3. ...(continued next week).

**********************

Do you have any comments about this page?
Write us at:
pastor@wisdomforlivingministries.org

Top