I had heard years ago of a study that showed the following facts. I found them quite interesting.
- Children whose fathers read for enjoyment are 3 times more likely to read for enjoyment than other kids.
- Children whose mothers read for enjoyment are 2 times more likely to read for enjoyment than other kids.
- Children whose parents both read are 6 times more likely to read.
The same stats applied for exercise. Children whose fathers exercised were 3 times more likely to exercise, and so on.
An alarming set of new studies has surfaced containing urgent news. I will share those in just a moment. But first, I remember thinking years ago about the reading and exercise study how eternally significant both parents are in the life of a child. I was particularly struck by how potent the father’s influence was, statistically speaking. And we learn even more through “The Family: A Proclamation to the World” of the two important general roles of parents: the father is to provide, the mother is to nurture.
Society would like people to think that traditional families are not important. But it is a false statement. And in news as of February 27, 2008, the results of 24 scholarly studies are in and reported by the Family Leader Network and Townhall.com: Fathers are essential to the wellbeing of children.
How long will it take for society to recognize this? With so many children being raised “out of wedlock” and the father absent, these cumulative studies could be rather depressing … or at the very least, alarming and full of alert for social and governmental policies currently being formed. We must clearly speak up!
For the studies have succinctly shown, all 24 of them (covering more than 20 years of data with 22,300 different data sets), that fathers’ absences in children’s lives bring about behavioral and psychological problems.
Society is all for reducing crime. Citizens clamor for policies to reduce antisocial behavior. Yet at the same time, many of our cities’, states’, and national influencers appear reluctant to address the underlying causes of crime and those same antisocial behaviors.
When studies show these kinds of results, such as “regular positive contact” with the father “reduces criminal behavior among children in low income families and enhances cognitive skills like intelligence, reasoning and language development,” policy makers at all levels of government must take note – or suffer the consequences of an increasingly violent society.
According to the Townhall.com report, the US leads the world in mother-only families (impacting more than 1 out of 4 kids). And shockingly, now nearly 1 out of 2 kids are being raised by a mother who never married.
As society continues its political experiment with embracing all forms and all kinds of relationships, society will continue to reap the fruits of bitterness … until enough people are willing to stand up boldly and proclaim that fathers are essential in the lives of kids.
I’m grateful for the Lord who calls prophets to lead and guide us in positions of truth, although those positions seem to become less popular. History has already given us the end of the story, though. When the traditional family is broken up, eventually the society or culture breaks up.
We can do something about all this. We can read the Lord’s perspective on the family, click on The Family: A Proclamation to the World. Then we can get busy calling our legislators.
