Last
month, I had the chance to meet & hear a young man who’s running for
office. He happened to sit next to me,
& we had the chance to talk before the meeting started. I asked him if he had a family. He shared that he & his wife have 2 young
children, & are preparing to have a third child. I smiled & said, Oh, those are good years for children.
Some of my favorite memories of our children are when they were that age. He quickly agreed. He runs a small business. When he spoke to the group, he spoke very
passionately about his beliefs about government, faith, & marriage.
After
the meeting ended, I encouraged him that whether he won or lost the election,
to spend time with his children while they’re young. I said, your children will be this young only
for a limited number of years, & this is the period when a father can have
the most influence. The time that a
father invests in his children when they are young, will pay dividends
later. He seemed touched, & said
that that was so true.
When
our son was in high school, he was in a youth ministry in which he taught &
mentored boys ages 6-10. Later, when he
was in college, he wrote a term paper about the importance of fathers. In the paper, he wrote about the behavior
& decisions that he observed in these young boys. He described how without exception, the boys
who behaved well & made good decisions, had a positive role model for a
father in the home. The boys who
misbehaved & made bad decisions, had a negative role model for a father or
had no father in the home.
Chuck
Colson was one of the top officials in the Pres. Richard Nixon administration
& was caught up in the Watergate scandal of the 1970s. So it was very humbling for him to find
himself in a prison cell, but his experience in that prison cell lead him to a
personal relationship with Jesus Christ.
After he was released from prison, he began a ministry for prisoners. He initiated Bible studies & programs for
prisoners; his ministry called Prison Fellowship grew & grew. Colson invested decades of his life into
prisoners. He also read studies of
prisoners. He discovered that the
thousands of men in prison had virtually nothing in common, except for one
thing. Every man in prison had a
negative role model for a father or no father in the home.
That’s
right. When a boy grows up in a home
with a positive role model for a father, he learns positive values & learns
to make good decisions. That’s why I
have a heart for fathers of young children.
When I meet a man who had young children, I encourage him to spend time
with his children. Young children will
learn so much from watching their parents.
That’s
why fathers matter. That’s why fathers
are so important. Fathers have the
influence to shape the next generation.
When our children became teens & then young adults, they made
decisions that were so much wiser than the decisions that I made at their
ages. It was humbling for me, but
watching them also made me proud. It all
started when our children were babies, toddlers, & then young children,
playing with them & showing them what a man does. If you know a father of young children,
please, for the sake of those children, encourage him to invest time in his children. Happy Fathers’ Day!
