Effective Fathers Series

“Effective Parents”

FATHERS

I tried to find a way to share the responsibility of God's instructions concerning the nurture or of children with the moms but there is no way around it.

In the two major passages which we will briefly examine today, God addresses “Fathers” not parents.

If he intended to address “parents” he would have used the same word used in the previous verse.

The following instruction is addressed primarily to FATHERS!

The wife is the willing support in this responsibility but not the primary responsible party.

It is the responsibility and privilege of the father to take the lead in the training of the children in the home and I believe there is an indication from this passage that men should take the lead in the training of children in the church as well.

Our culture today definitely takes a different view than what is presented here in these two passages.

We find a greater in greater percentage of single parent homes.

Even when there is a father in the home, he is absent.

New studies come out every day revealing the devastating effects of absent or abusive fathers.

The father’s role in the home is vital to healthy development.

Being and producing individuals who develop and demonstrate a dynamic relationship with God, sacrificially love people and effectively impact our world begins in the home with the fathers.

Children long for the approval of their fathers.

Mothers are wonderful and admired and are at times the focus of the children in the home, but there is some vital dynamic associated with the role of the father in the healthy development of a child.

Some who are now adults, even now, continue to seek and pursue the approval and blessing of their father and express the devastation of not having received such approval or blessing.

One survey of 300 7th grade boys reveled that their fathers spent an average of 7 minutes a week individually with them.

Love starved kids are turning to gangs where they feel accepted.

Scott Larson of “Straight Ahead Ministries” said,

“Gang kids are usually the leaders in their communities. They climb the ladder to success through a gang. Gangs also meet their desire for family and close relationships.”

In 1990 a Los Angeles Times poll found that 57 percent of all fathers felt guilty about spending too little time with their children. Since 1960 the number of fatherless families has tripled. And research by University of Pennsylvania sociologist Frank Furstenberg shows that three-fourths of all children of divorce have contact with their fathers less than two days a month.

Dr. Dennis Schumuland MD

“As a family physician, I’ve come to believe that fathers shape the moral behavior of our society more than they realize. The Center for Disease Control is completely baffled by the spread of violence, but they haven’t yet figured out that many two-parent families are effectively ‘zero parent’ families because of the fanatical career commitments of each parent. Children se our values by the choices we make.

A book was written back in 1947 in which historian Carle Zimmerman compared the deterioration and ultimate disintegration of various cultures with the parallel in the decline of the family unit in America.

• Increased and rapid easy causeless divorce.

• Decreased number of children, population decay and increased public disrespect for parents and parenthood.

• Elimination of the real meaning of the marriage ceremony.

• Popularity of pessimistic teachings about the early heroes.

• Breaking down of most inhibitions against adultery.

• Revolts of youth against parents so that parenthood became more and more difficult for those who did try to raise children.

• Rapid rise and spread of juvenile delinquency.

• Common acceptance of all forms of sex perversions.

Our society is raising a generation of angry violent children.

One does not have to look very far, even in recent days, to know the truth of this statement.

There is much in Scripture about family, children, marriage and parenting.

Many of the principles are by example both negative and positive.

God presents us here and in Ephesians with some of the most succinct yet complete instructions for a healthy family ever written.

These are things that we know.

My intention this morning is to stir our conscience once again regarding our responsibility as fathers and parents to practice the things we know.

Because Scripture puts the heaviest responsibility on fathers, I feel I must do the same realizing however that raising children is a team effort that requires the cooperation and motivation all of the wife to accomplish.

In our culture, not only do parents need to cooperate with one another but we need the cooperation of the church family.

The church family, Sunday school, church programs should never become a substitute for parental responsibility but be designed to come alongside and help in what ever way possible.