September 11, 2008

A Spiritual Guide For Fathers To Raising Children


Fathers Guide






Men in the position of a father or father figure will need a guide or “How To” book to help them navigate through life’s unexpected challenges when raising or mentoring children. Fatherhood requires wisdom, patience, a sense of humor, and a strong spirituality focused and rooted in God’s word. Many are willing to provide advice, but what kind of spiritual guidance is there for fathers? What kind of guide understands the inherent responsibilities to fatherhood and importantly how to be a God fearing and praying man? There is one book that has stood the test of time itself, written by The Father who knows of all situations and circumstances, who looks past all our faults and shortcomings and provides wisdom and love.


Fatherhood is a responsibility that should never be taken for granted, nor taken lightly, Proverbs 4:1 states, “Here ye children, the instruction of a father, and attend to know understanding”. Before a father can teach he must also be a students and recieve
instruction himself.


Proverbs 4:2 states, “I give you good doctrine for sake ye not my law.”

The law of the father holds much weight in the stability and functionality of a family. God’s law is law and God’s words are truth and wisdom. We as fathers desire our children to live long and fruitful lives just as our heavenly father means for us to, but that requires good teaching and modeling.


Proverbs 4:10 states, “Hear, O my son and receive my sayings: and the years of thy life shall be many”. What true father would not want their children to have a long and happy life, but there needs to be consistent commitment from the father to the son. The lack of this commitment is seen today as our young sons are dying needlessly. Dropping out of school and involved in a judicial system that incarcerates instead of educates. Understanding thy place in the order and scheme of a family strengthens the family unit and binds the structure of individuals into a unit that is strong, and thus strengthens neighborhoodsand communities. When there is no father in the home the mother has the duality of both parental responsibilities. She must be the disciplinarian, advisor, protector, breadwinner and all the duties and responsibilities there of.


Proverbs 10:1 “The Proverbs of Solomon, a wise son maketh a glad father, but a foolish son is the heaviness of his mother.”


Children should conduct their behavior respectfully and wisely, their actions will be determined by the modeling of the father that is present in their lives, but if there is no father figure many women are beset with the challenges of raising "Boys To Men". This is not an impossible task, but how can a man raise a woman, just as how can women raise a man?


If we view the big picture of school drop out rates and incarcerations in this country how many of those young people do not have fathers nor father figures?

In Matthew 7:9-12, how we treat and teach our sons or those that we model and mentor is how they will develop. There are too many men leading our young men the wrong way. They are providing our children with alcohol and tobacco (leading to physical dependencies), illicit drugs (creating psychological disintegration), and sex (creating a generation infected with HPV, HIV, HERPES, and unplanned/unwanted pregnancies). This type of generational homicide and in some cases genecide is leading more of our young men and young women to an existence of poverty, dependancy and self-destruction.

Quoting the Honorable City Councilwoman from Jacksonville, Florida Glorious Johnson (R), “the church and the community must work together to address our crisis of death and destruction”. There seems this desire to do something, but no leadership or agenda to initiate actions. Our churches are stuggling with economic challenges, ministerial posturing, and often times manipulation of God's word to fit an agenda based on money not saving souls.

Many have prayed for change, but what contributions besides prayer have they offered. In Matthew 6:5 it states, ”and when thou prayest, thou shalt not be as the hypocrites are: for they love to pray standing in the synagogues and in the corners of the streets, that they may be seen of men. Verily, I say unto you, they have their reward”. What reward will we all receive in the years to come if we remain divided and hypocrites in the Word of God. We fathers have a guide, we have a word of truth and power, all we need to do is follow it.


Luke 2:49, “we all must be about our fathers business,” united in a common cause to save our children and not allow another possible generation to be lost.

We can no longer use the excuse that there are no good examples of men that are successful, just look at Mr. Obama: educated, drive, christian, father, husband and from a single parent home. He provides no excuses for his quest to be President of these United States. What excuse do many of us have for not being the best that we can be and pushing our sons and daughters to be the best that they can be?

William Jackson, M.Ed.
William.Jackson@ewc.edu
"Copyright William Jackson, All Rights Reserved 2008."

1 comment:

Anonymous said...

Great post, William. I agree wholeheartedly. Men must step up to the plate and lead our youth (their children) by example. So many fathers, even married ones, leave all the work to the mothers. Many seem to forget that God appointed "men" as heads of households. It's part of the mission at the church I attend to get more men to come to God and take back their God-given leadership roles.