One of the most timely and striking news stories that appeared in this week before
Father’s Day was one from a Richmond, Virginia television station that reported
on the rising number of single parent homes in our state capital.
An organization called “First Things First” reported that 60%
of all families in Richmond are single parent families. In the African-American community, that
number spikes to an unbelievable 86 %.
Of course, most of these single parent homes are ones with a single
mother who is raising children without the daily presence and support of a
father.
The report also noted the toll that homes without fathers can
have on children, citing Department of Health and Justice statistics which
report that 63% of youth suicides, 71% of high school dropouts, and 70% of
incarcerated juveniles come from fatherless homes.
When Paul wrote his epistle to the Ephesians, he offered a
‘’household code,” instructing Christians as to how to organize and interact in
their extended families, addressing the relationship between wives and
husbands, children and parents, servants and masters (see Eph 5:22—6:9). When addressing the child-parent
relationship, Paul specifically addressed fathers telling them, “provoke not
your children to wrath” (6:4). The NIV
renders the phrase, “do not exasperate your children.”
No doubt, we Christian fathers will not always perform our
duties as providers, leaders, and encouragers as we should. We are always thankful that love covers a
multitude of sins (1 Peter 4:8). We know
both intuitively and from the explicit counsel of God’s Word how we should
be. May the Lord raise up a vast number
of Christian men in our generation who have taken up the call to be godly
husbands and fathers to reverse the current slide and give salt and light to a
dying culture.
Grace and peace, Pastor
Jeff Riddle
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