Hope for a Fatherless Generation

​Governor of Tennessee, Bill Lee, signed a resolution declaring that June will be "Nuclear Family Month" in his state. He says, "The Nuclear family is God's perfect design for humanity and is aligned with the long-held traditional values of Tennessee." The resolution commends those who seek to protect and strengthen traditional values. It also presents statistics documenting "the harm to children caused by being raised in fatherless homes." These children, it reports, are "ten times more likely to abuse chemical substances," and include "sixty percent of youth suicides, seventy-one percent of high school dropouts, and eighty-five percent of youths in prison."
 
Rabbi Jonathan Cahn's June newsletter tells a story that illustrates the need for fathers in a family even in the animal kingdom. He reports that animal-care personnel at a wildlife preserve in Africa discovered rhinoceroses that had been killed by wild, young male elephants. Elephants are not known to be killers, so the park overseers began to research how the elephants grew up. It was discovered that they had grown up without fathers so had no one to model proper elephant behavior. They were drawn into violent behavior. The fascinating answer to their dilemma was to ship elephant father figures into the preserve who could demonstrate proper behavior to the juvenile delinquent elephants. Before long, the young elephants stopped attacking.
 
This elephant display of the need for fathers should be taken to heart by our own society. In a recent sermon at Bethel Church in California, Pastor Kris Vallaton talked about the deconstruction of the family in America. He quoted a staggering statistic that fifty-one percent of children in America are born without a dad. He claims that the United States is the most prominent fatherless nation in the world. Because of this orphan spirit, children are growing up with a mindset of abandonment, rejection, and emotional isolation. The feelings that come from a lack of a loving father on earth make it difficult for these children to connect with Father God, and instead of viewing Him as a loving father, they view Him as a distant and demanding god.
 
The Church must be involved in helping young people break free of an orphan spirit. I believe that the greatest curse on earth today is our fatherless generation. Romans 8:19-22 tells us that even creation groans as it waits for the manifestation of the mature children of God. Most definitely, the ills of our society can be traced to the feeling of alienation that children have from earthly fathers and Father God. We need a demonstration of Father’s love by the men of the Church who have received the Spirit of God and know their sonship so that they cry, "Abba, Father!" (Romans 8:15) To our fatherless generation, the Church must make available to them opportunities to develop a personal relationship with Father God through prayer and worship and studying the Word of God that defines their identity and declares the truth. The community of Believers must support and encourage those who have the orphan spirit so that they can replace the lies with truth.
 
Everything that God does is for love's sake as He is love! He loved the world so much that "He gave His one and only Son, that whoever believes in Him shall not perish but have eternal life." (John 3:16) We have a promise in Malachi 4:6 that God "will turn the hearts of the fathers to the children, and the hearts of the children to the fathers." This verse is repeated in Luke 1:17. Let us pray it in!