As much as children need their mothers, God implanted a divine need in the heart of children for a father who is more than a passing contributor to their existence. A child who can look up to, love and respect his or her father is well on the way to a healthy and successful emotional life. Fathers are to bestow stability on family life and on the lives of their children. Children are more than a man’s offspring. They draw more than physical life from a man; they also draw from him both emotionally and spiritually.

With Fathers’ Day approaching, I began to search for some inspiring tidbits with which to sprinkle this article from a book of quotations entitled, Words of Life. To my surprise and chagrin, I found little. The index listed four quotations for fathers as opposed to eight, double the amount for mothers! In fact, one of the quotes mentioned “father” only in reference to carving the Christmas bird and passing the wing to “mother.”

Fathers don’t appear to fare much better in the news media. As the awareness of child abuse grows, the institution of fatherhood gains another black-eye—biological fathers and stepfathers seem to represent the majority of perpetrators of child abuse.

The growing phenomenon of single-parent homes only supports the increasing disrespect for fatherhood, as most of these households are headed by women who have become responsible for both the nurturing of and provision for the family.

The rise of teenage pregnancy and the absence of a committed father at the beginning of an infant’s life impact society to the point that the position of father becomes one of the greatest endangered species our nation knows. The picture and future of fatherhood appear rather bleak.

None of the aforementioned situations represents, of course, what God intended for fathers. To the contrary, He intended fathers to have both a position of great honor and awesome responsibility. How refreshing it is then to see those men who remain true to their families and responsibilities.

As much as children need their mothers, God implanted a divine need in the heart of children for a father who is more than a passing contributor to their existence. A child who can look up to, love and respect his or her father is well on the way to a healthy and successful emotional life. Fathers are to bestow stability on family life and on the lives of their children. Children are more than a man’s offspring. They draw more than physical life from a man; they also draw from him both emotionally and spiritually.

In the spiritual realm, our heavenly Father gives us more than life in our new birth. He cares for us all the way through our Christian walk till the day He calls us home. He is ever present. No new-born child of God is ever abandoned by his heavenly Father right after the new birth. And so it should be with earthly fathers. They should be there for their children as they develop physically, emotionally and spiritually throughout their lives.

Fatherhood deserves to be lifted to the high place of honor. Certainly, we should seek its survival from the list of the most endangered species.

Jesus expressed in vivid terms the love of our heavenly Father by exemplifying it through the love of an earthly father: “And of which of you that is a father shall his son ask a loaf, and he give him a stone? or a fish, and he for a fish give him a serpent? . . . If you then, being evil, know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more shall your heavenly Father give the Holy Spirit to them that ask him?” (Luke 11: 11,13)

Helen Louise Herndon is a member of Central Presbyterian Church (EPC) in St. Louis, Missouri. She is freelance writer and served as a missionary to the Arab/Muslim world in France and North Africa.