Relationship

God sees people as important. Relationships on earth communicates to us who God is. Deuteronomy gives emphasis, not only on the provision of the Lord for food and water, but also the inclusion of those without connection to be adopted into the community during celebrations and special holy days. It’s because people value people.

When a man becomes a father, he begins to understand more of how the Father God loves him.

The word “satisfaction” in Deuteronomy 26:12-13 means “to be full”, “suffice”, “having enough”, and in “the context of community.” Filling a belly is not enough.

There is a connection to God first, then people, then communities. Being in awe of the Lord is related with greater life satisfaction. The relationship between the two is due to feelings of connectedness with others. Taken together, church attendance, wisdom, feelings of connectedness with others produces life satisfaction. Fatherhood brings a certain level of satisfaction, but it also emulates the experience of that of loving Father God. When a man becomes a father, he begins to understand more of how the Father God loves him. It also gives him a concept of how God wants to satisfy the human need for a relationship.

When God looks at the fatherless, He sees the need for a fatherhood relationship. Relationship is a priority for any spiritual leadership. A father who walks out on his family would have significant limitations in developing that relationship. Influence occurs with modeling, commitment, and time invested. If the father is absent, how can he accomplish these things? It is essential for the father to teach the following to his children:

Influence occurs with modeling, commitment, and time invested. If the father is absent, how can he accomplish these things?

  1. Teach them how to love.
    2. Teach them how to forgive.
    3. Give them the gift of self-esteem.
    4. Teach them the keys to freedom. (a) respecting the rules of society and (b) taking responsibility for one’s own actions.
    5. Teach them to dream.

Presence

Fatherless exists because of the inability to draw near to the child. The fatherless lacks the presence of a father, in the same way that the widow lacks the presence of a husband. Presence matters to human beings. Presence is also choice. An adoptive father restores the fatherless to a position of privilege and protection, in the same light with the remarrying of the widow.  All people groups do well to have the presence of  loving relationships and a source of strength and encouragement. A loving presence sets relationships up for success. God’s action commands from scripture that to reach the fatherless demand a presence. According to Dr. Beth Erickson, an author on the ungodly action of fatherlessness, Longing for Dad: Father Loss and Its impact:

The common element with all [sources of father hunger] but one is the father’s choice to absent himself. – Dr. Beth Erikson

All father hunger springs from one main source: desertion. A father’s abdication may be total or emotional or what the individual experiences as desertion. There are seven specific causes of father loss: death, divorce, single mothering, adoption, addiction, abuse and traditional fathering. The common element with all but one is the father’s choice to absent himself.[1]

As a Father, God listens patiently with us. In the same way, the presence of the father is felt when there are opportunities for him to listen to his children. If you look at the accounts when God heard human beings, you’ll notice that God is very specific as to what He hears. Several times in scripture, God says He hears the “cry” of the widow and orphan and it will cause Him to be angry (Exo. 3:7, Job 29:12). In the same way, the father must be the one who hears the cries of his family, and address their pain.

Generational

It is easy to see just how bad the status of fatherlessness is in our generation. The increasing rate of premarital births and rising rate of divorce, there is a high number of children living with just one person. It actually grew from 9.1% to 20.7 percent from 1960 to 2012, with 55.1% of black children, 31.1% of Hispanic children, and 20.7% of white children living in solo-parent homes.[2] Sociologists and psychologists pointed out the destructive impact of fatherlessness to generations when there is a high rate of fatherlessness.

 

 

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