By Dencio Acop
Official statistics cite that ‘children in father-absent homes are almost four times more likely to be poor’; ‘Fatherless children are at a dramatically greater risk of drug and alcohol abuse’; ‘Children of single-parent homes are more than twice as likely to commit suicide’; ‘Adolescents in single-parent families were more likely to engage in delinquency’; and Fatherless children comprise the majority of juvenile delinquents convicted for rape. These statistics can be looked up and they go on and on. It is obvious that having a natural father and mother who love each other will reduce these statistics. But it is unfortunate that this fact is no longer obvious today as it once was when our parents and grandparents were still around. Blame it on the modern lifestyle, too much secularism, or unbridled freedom. While technology has radically altered man’s outlook on life, some things do not and never change. Man is imperfect. Man is a fallen creature in the moral sense. Having a moral bearing and being ordered to the intelligibility that brought him about therefore is the obvious answer. Something that is no longer obvious today.
The result is a divided world. As in everything else we have in this worldly life. While some of us do not feel the effects of the above stats, many of us do. It is supposed to be the responsibility of the morals and haves to uplift their lesser neighbors. There are values and policies man has learned along the way to make this happen. But materialism has gotten the better part of man. The survival of the body, more than the soul, has taken center stage. Capitalism and its incentives and derivatives have left little room for spiritual growth and values considered arid in the sensual pleasures of earthly life. There used to be .. No, there is a natural structure that sets the leadership towards disciplining man’s tendency towards selfishness. This structure is fatherhood. And it brought on .. No, it brings about an ordered society as a whole. It leads to a better world all around. Because it models and leads selflessness over selfishness. It forsakes itself for the greater good of a core family. Multiplied over by like-minded fathers, it leads to nations and a global society sustained by peaceful coexistence. In short, a good father is non-negotiable. Destroy it and you destroy humanity. For, as natural as it is, it actually comes from the Father. The Most Supernatural as supernatural can get. The Creator of all created. And the Model of all earthly fathers. Whose logic and order in the universe cannot be challenged much more disobeyed. Lest man be destroyed by destroying the true concept of fatherhood. Authored by Godhood.
So, how should a good father be? We once knew the obvious answer to that one. But let us review. The man who loved. The man who married his love. The husband and wife who had kids and raised them well. So, how are kids raised well? Try modeling love, faith, truth, kindness, faithfulness, moral wisdom, honest labor, humility, and respect for elders among others. Not long after, grandparenthood. The same process repeated all over again. Then death, that begins another life, in another world. Where the Father reigns. And makes sense of all the father’s done in his earthly life.
