Role of Fathers in Family
By Doug Harrell
Mitchell County
As I sit down to write this article several things are running through my mind but the thing that seems most pressing is the role of the father in the family, the community, and society. I worry that too many fathers are not taking their responsibility as they should. Fathers are appointed several duties by the Holy Scriptures which too many have walked away from. The first and most important of those duties is to teach and train their children in the way they should go, the first being a relationship with our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ.
We fathers are called upon to be the spiritual leaders of the family, to be the ones that teach and lead in spiritual matters. We must do this by being true to the faith in our personal daily walk with the Lord. We must be taking the family to church, not sending them. We must love their mothers as Christ loved the church. We must commit to putting their mothers on a pedestal and honor them and expect the children to do the same. Not only expect, but demand, and yes, I mean demand, that they do the same thing. A family is a sacred unit in God’s plan for humanity and the critical fact is that the family be a man and a woman joined together in Holy Matrimony, and that unity holds until death do they part.
As we go into Father’s Day this month, I am praying that the fathers in our nation will step up to the plate and be the role models for the boys in their families and an example of a husband that the girls can look for as they reach the age of looking for their own mates. The breakdown of future families is a direct reflection of the current family situation taking place in society. Marriage is a commitment of a man and a woman for a lifetime if we are to have families that are intact and solid in their mental, emotional, and spiritual lives. When I look at statistics, I truly shudder at what our nation’s children are facing today, the number of single families, families that are comprised of mine, theirs, ours, and others, too many times there is nothing but turmoil and trouble. Granted some exceptions have done a great job of raising children in this situation, but they are few and far between.
My prayer for anyone reading this today is that they understand first God’s plan for the family and the relationship that is laid out for each of us.
“Therefore as the church is subject unto Christ, so let the wives be to their own husbands in every thing. Husbands, love your wives, even as Christ also loved the church, and gave himself for it; that he might sanctify and cleanse it with the washing of water by the word, that he might present it to himself a glorious church, not having spot, or wrinkle, or any such thing; but that it should be holy and without blemish. So ought men to love their wives as their own bodies. He that loveth his wife loveth himself.” Ephesians 5:24-28 KJV
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Doug Harrell is a lifelong resident of Mitchell County, Owner of Harrell Hill Farms, a member of Bear Creek Baptist Church, and former publisher of Blue Ridge Christian News. You can find him on Facebook at https://www.facebook.com/doug.harrell.77
You can read more good Christian News from Doug Harrell HERE
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