mother’s day
I heard a disturbing, but not surprising statistic last night. Appartently 41% of all live births in the state of Oklahoma in 2008 were to unwed mothers. Wow! That is alarming and has so many implications.
After hearing this, on my drive home I was sharing that statistic on the phone with one of my best friends in the entire world, Brent Kellogg (there ya go BK, you finally got a mention in my blog) and it hit me that one of the biggest issues with this is that so many children will grow up in a home with no father. The immediate immorality of the mother and “father” having sex outside of marriage is there and is obviously not pleasing to God. But the long term is what alarms me even more.
Where will these children learn submission to authority as they see it modeled by their mother to their father? Where will they learn spiritual leadership and God’s design for the man to be spiritual head of his household? Where will they learn about a father’s love? Where will they learn the things that CAN ONLY be taught by a father?
I admire those women who persevere and work hard to teach their children everything they can. I know many children who have been dragged to church by their mothers and the mother is doing the best they can, but it is just not possible for them to be all that a father should be and do all that a father does.
I know in my experience counseling and dealing with teenagers, many boys who are “trouble makers,” as we get to the root of things are boys who have an absent father or do not have a good relationship with their father. Many teen girls who have identity issues and try to compensate for their poor self image by dressing provocatively or becoming sexually active, have absent fathers.
Here is what I have found as I did a little research about the fatherless. Violent criminals are overwhelmingly males who grew up without fathers, including 72% of adolescent murderers and 70% of long-term prison inmates.
Children in father-absent homes are also more likely to be suspended from school, or to drop out; be treated for an emotional or behavioral problem; commit suicide as adolescents; and be victims of child abuse or neglect. In this economic difficulty, I would be interested in seeing how the economy is effected by fatherless homes. As I said, the implications of this are far-reaching.
In 1960, less than 8 million children were living in families where the father was absent. In 2002 it was 24 million. Where are the fathers?
This Mother’s Day, I am praying for fathers. I am praying for men to rise up and be men. I am praying for sexual urges to be brought under the power of the Holy Spirit and holiness so that guys will stop hitting and quitting it and step up to the plate to honor God by honoring women as God’s creation, not objects to be used and disposed of. I am praying that men will begin to take responsibility for their actions BEFORE they act in a way that will cause so much long-term damage to society and to the individuals involved. I pray that men will quit grieving the heart of God by presenting a poor image of what a Father’s love looks like and leaving many with confusion and misunderstandings of who God is as Father.
HAPPY MOTHER’S DAY!!!
May 6th, 2009 at 11:39 am
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