I have always been fascinated by nature. Especially interesting to me is the story of the bull alpha elephants. On the Nature Channel, I have watched as a group of young male elephants and their mothers were separated from the older males who were then killed by the game preserve experts merely to thin the herd. (Man can be so cruel at times).The results were unexpected and horrible!
Mother elephants could not control their young males as they killed off white rhinos to prove their physical strength. Gangs of young males led attacks against mother elephants and even tourist buses.
Local experts came up with a solution to relocate a few old males back into the troubled neighborhood. Without bullying, drawing blood, or harming the young, these older male elephants showed the delinquents that they did not have to kill and bully to prove they were a strong elephant!
Come back, fathers!
It is a father’s responsibility to teach his sons their role of respecting their mother, refusing to be abusive or bullying, restraining from macho inclinations, and being strong promoters of peace. But when fathers abandon their children or fail to teach crucial life lessons, crime and violence may naturally result.
While counseling men, I assess what their role is in their family. David Blankenhorn states in his famous book Fatherless America: Confronting Our Most Urgent Social Problem, “girls who grow up without fathers are at much greater risk for early sexual activity, adolescent childbearing, and divorce, and have great difficulty in forming healthy intimate relationships.” He goes on to state that boys without fathers sometimes search for masculinity in gangs, on the streets, or by committing crime. They may also turn against their mother and women in general and develop rage and anger. He calls this “protest masculinity”.
Fathers, you are so vitally important!
You are the gatekeeper who shapes your children. Fatherhood helps boys to become good men, to obey the law, to be good citizens, and to think about the needs of others. A father’s love and involvement builds a daughter’s confidence in her own femininity and contributes to her sense that she is worthy of love.
A Father for every child!
In a perfect world, the biological father is married to the biological mother. However, this is far from a perfect world and divorce and out of wedlock childbearing is here to stay. Growing numbers of children will be fatherless. Today many grandfathers and uncles (“kinship care”) are becoming the responsible adult males and giving these children stable father-figures.
Fathers, lead your entire family toward God and a Christian life. Encourage them to attend church and learn Christian values. Be the alpha male that God created you to be: strong, protective, leading your children toward strong morals and values.
and when he is old he will not turn from it.”
Proverbs 22:6