Many social service studies recognize the importance fathers play in a home. With more dads either leaving the picture or being forced out of it, the impact is devastating. The US Department of Health revealed that 63% of youth suicides are from fatherless homes, 90% of all homeless and runaway children are from fatherless homes, 85% of all children who show behavior disorders come from fatherless homes, 80% of rapists with anger problems come from fatherless homes, 71% of all high school dropouts come from fatherless homes. And 75% of all adolescent patients in chemical abuse centers come from fatherless homes.
Although we know that fathers are more than a bread-winner, many underestimate the impact they have on shaping the attitudes in the home. In that same study, the US Department of Health revealed that children with Fathers who are involved are 70% less likely to drop out of school, and have a much higher probability of getting A’s in school. They have fewer social disorders and seem to have a better plan for their own future.
So it makes a lot of sense that Satan would work double time to get fathers out of the picture. From the very beginning, Satan pulled his best tricks out and convinced Adam and Eve that they didn’t need a father. Less than 10 generations later the world was so evil that God was sorry He’d even created them! Yet He longed to be the father of His creation, so He would adopt a group that He could demonstrate His power through and His plan for their life; a life free from the power of Satan’s temptations.
Abraham was blessed to be the one God chose to demonstrate His love and power through. Many years after that relationship started, God heard their cries for relief from the slave quarries of Egypt from the mouths of Abraham’s distant descendants. Now the time was right for God to powerfully demonstrate not only His ability, but His love for his children.
As God’s children finally crossed over into a land that would be theirs, a land where they could prosper and grow, He had them do something to help remind future generations to see just how much a dad gives his children hope for the future and confidence to face it.
In Joshua 4, Joshua relayed a command from God saying, “Go into the middle of the Jordan, in front of the Ark of the Lord your God. Each of you must pick up one stone and carry it out on your shoulder — twelve stones in all, one for each of the twelve tribes of Israel. We will use these stones to build a memorial. In the future your children will ask you, 'What do these stones mean?' Then you can tell them, 'They remind us that the Jordan River stopped flowing when the Ark of the Lord's Covenant went across.' These stones will stand as a memorial among the people of Israel forever.”
God wanted the people never to forget what their heavenly father was willing and able, to do for His children. He wanted those men to carry those stones so that their children would ask them what those stones meant. I like to think that those men came back to that pile of rocks periodically just to be reminded themselves. See, each generation can be inspired by the ones before them. Those stories, those memories, and lessons of life come when there’s a dad willing to involve himself in the struggles of his children and lead them out of danger.
Paul gives some similar instructions to fathers in Ephesians 6:4, “Fathers, do not provoke your children to anger, but bring them up in the discipline and instruction of the Lord.” As the statistics seem to indicate when the father fails to be that anchor, the man that teaches his children how to succeed, how to endure, how to hope for the future, the children by default feel abandoned on something so essential in life – a defined purpose. And when they feel angry they act out in many different ways; many ways that ultimately destroy their own lives.
It takes an entire family having a healthy fear of God’s power to fully appreciate the promises he offers us. During Father’s Day, be sure to encourage a dad, either yours or anyone. Fathers need to be
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