Getting your Trinity Audio player ready...

To the Editor:
Father’s Day is June 15, and everyone enjoys seeing the pictures of fathers in the Elizabethton Star. These last days before the coming tribulation the Bible says will be characterized by evil and sinfulness. Among other evils, 2 Timothy 3 says people in the last days before the return of Jesus will be disobedient to parents and unthankful. Sadly, recently in Elizabethton, two brothers were convicted for the murder of their father. The motive appears to be they were unthankful for the inheritance their father gave them and believed they were entitled to more.
Jesus died so sinful humans could be reconciled to God the Father (2 Cor 5). If you receive the gift of God’s son, Jesus, you receive God the Father (1 John 2). If you love Jesus and Jesus is your Savior, God is then the Father who adopts you as His child, and we will have the greatest father for eternity and the greatest inheritance. Don’t write the brothers off or yourself. Only Jesus is the author and finisher!
Over the last 50 years, the media, TV, movies, and cartoons for children have devalued fathers and masculinity. They usually only show fathers as fools and knuckleheads, not as wise heads of the home. The first step toward Communism in a country is to destroy the family and the role of the father. The National Center for Fathering reports an estimated 25 million children, or 33 percent of children in America, are negatively affected by their father’s absence. A study found children growing up without a father are more depressed, have more behavior problems, are more likely to commit suicide, are nine times more likely to drop out of school, and 20 times more likely to end up in prison.
The lack of fathers and this devaluation of fatherhood and masculinity has helped create more evil men. Fatherless boys are more likely to grow up and mistreat women and commit violent crime. Dr. Anthony B. Bradley, a professor, said, “Almost every major school shooter suffered from dad-deprivation.” Dr. Bradley said, “Hurt boys, hurt others!”
Fathers matter, and those without a godly father, by the ripple effect, every future configuration for them is negatively altered.
God wants our family to be a lifelong priority. In the Biblical book of Malachi, God says He wants to turn the hearts of the fathers to the children and the hearts of the children to their fathers. God’s people need to pray for this to happen. Most atheists had no father. “One’s attitude toward one’s father largely shapes one’s attitude toward God.” If you have a father, honor him, and pray for him as the Bible says you will be blessed. If you have a Christian father, thank God you are blessed.
A Christian father is a giver, provider, defender, and leader, and does all the things needed so the family can thrive. Those without a father often have identity problems and do not know who they are. Only Jesus can fill this hole in their life and show them who they are. Put your trust in Jesus; He will help you forgive your father and others and heal your broken heart and get past your past. Fathers matter; however, knowing and loving Jesus matters most. Those who love Jesus and have faith in Jesus are a new creation and adopted children of God, and by the ripple effect, every future configuration for them is positively altered forever!

D.D. Nave
Elizabethton