Healthy civilizations have recognized the critical role of fathers since ancient times. In the last verse of the Old Testament we are told, “An he shall turn the heart of the fathers to the children, and the heart of the children to their fathers, lest I come and smite the earth with a curse.” (Malachi 4:6). This wound to fathers is a wound of absence – emotional as well as physical. You can kill living organisms in two ways. You can smash it, or you can just leave it alone. In the souls of men, the weapon of destruction is shame. When dads don’t embrace, encourage, guide, value me, I must not be worth much.” A real man is real. He walks in truth, even when it costs his image of being in control. He wants to face and overcome3 his inadequacies, so he can fulfill his calling as a husband, father, worker, and citizen. The problem with missing min in the lives of young boys is that they then look to mom to fill the gap created, and then later grasps onto his wife. But no woman, no matter how present, loving, and helpful, can be a father. Today we need men, married or single who understand this dilemma and are willing to take up the slack that is being left by the fact children are being raised in an alarming rate in single parent homes. And in many of those homes, the father is either uninterested, or unknown! With this in mind it is necessary for single moms to look for ways to introduce their children to a male figure that can teach them some of the principles that can only come from a man. This is not to say that women are some how inadequate, for every child needs a woman in their life also. However, the Lord established the family to have BOTH a mother and a father, in order to raise children effectively, and we are witnessing the effects of the decline of the family.
