The Greatest Impact

Jeremiah 32:17-18, 37b-39: "(Jeremiah prayed) 'Ah, Sovereign LORD, you have made the heavens and the earth by your great power and outstretched arm. Nothing is too hard for you. You show love to thousands but bring the punishment for the fathers' sins into the laps of their children after them' . . . . (God replied) 'I will bring them back to this place and let them live in safety. They will be my people, and I will be their God. I will give them singleness of heart and action, so that they will always fear me for their own good and the good of their children after them.'"


There is nothing more positively impacting to a society than for its fathers to display "singleness of heart" in uncompromising, unwavering allegiance to the One True LORD. The LORD communicates in the above passage that men of integrity and obedience to Him will bring blessing to their children (and ultimately a society). Of course, the antithesis equally is true . . . that men of dishonor and reckless, selfish rebellion against the LORD will bring devastation to the "laps of their children after them."


Lest I be too philosophical, let me interject an example to validate these truths:


There is a father who is egocentric by nature. He is not yielded to the Lord, has no longing for the Lord, and he does not delight in daily reflection of and dialogue with the LORD through His Word (the Scriptures). To be sure, this man in his selfish consumption, thinks only of himself; his determination of "expediency" is filtered through the guise of personal benefit that he himself craves with inordinate zeal. If a person, object, action, or goal ultimately satisfies this father's insatiable desires, he will determine it important and will pursue it passionately; otherwise, anyone or anything not satisfying his hedonistic tendencies will be perceived as wasting his time.


This father also is not inclined to embrace his calling as "minister" to his family . . . a man called to be an agent of blessing and grace to the sensitive needs of his wife and children. Because his family's needs are secondary to his own wanton desires, they are trivialized as insignificant. His family in turn struggles with the racking sobs of disappointment that their husband/father cares not for them. They feel rejected and abandoned by the one to whom they look more than anyone else for love and affirmation.


This father neither is inclined to assimilate his family into a community of genuine faith (i.e. the Church) so that they might be nurtured by other Godly believers of Jesus Christ, nor is he surrendered to his role as facilitator of familial worship of the Lord in his home. On the contrary, this father would rather sit in front of the television and "vegetate" on episodic garbage, or he would rather network with his friends in certain activities that may bring temporary enjoyment but in fact have no lasting substantive impact (e.g. golf, fishing, etc.). Whereas these activities per se are not inherently bad, their degradation is evidenced in the father's consumption of pleasure to the detriment of fulfilling his greater purpose of being a spiritual leader and "love"r in the home. Such abandonment of the family is a most heinous sin in the eyes of God Almighty. If this father would rather pass through life feasting upon his personal delights above the indigenous needs of his wife and children, who are eager for concentrated love, affection, and most importantly spiritual leadership, then he is no true father at all. This man is only a biological progenitor who is held in utter contempt by the LORD, and the LORD will not hold him guiltless for such vile disregard of his responsibilities as father and husband.


Tragically, the majority of fathers in our culture by their word and actions of indifference/self-centeredness reinforce to their children that self-satisfaction is the end to which they should strive. These children grow up understanding that "self" is the god to be worshipped.


Or perhaps equally tragic is the misconception by these children that "self" has no value at all, since their fathers seem to find them unworthy of love, affection, and instruction. As fathers shuffle their children off to the periphery of their busy, adult lives, they bring a "curse" to their children by causing them to conclude themselves to be a burdensome distraction. One only needs to canvass his immediate community setting and he soon will find in the eyes of its children the loss and longing of the genuine heartfelt love and affection of their fathers.


As a result of this abandonment by their fathers, these children fall prey to fear and low self-esteem that results in underachievement later in life (for fear of failure), poor relational decisions (due to the rationalization that no one will love them), and eventual chronic apathy, de-motivation, and bitterness in their adult lives (for the formulated opinions early in life that their dreams were undeserving of them). Such consequent decisions, driven by fear and insecurity, bring to these children a hellish adult life experience that will lack all the zest and fulfillment that God would have for them.


Sadly, this curse of the fathers (if they are even physically around for their children) is placed in the laps of their children who in turn repeat the cycle . . . and become the very detestable parents that lack spiritual integrity, love, and commitment to their children. As with the prior generation, so goes the next generation . . . and so on and so on . . . unless one is so fortunate to break free from the dysfunction through a miraculous work of God in his life.


May it ever be reiterated: God demands that fathers possess an unwavering commitment to Him as LORD; and the LORD expects that those fathers love their children and train them in the ways of righteousness. These mandates are paramount, for the LORD desires new generations of Godly offspring who would experience the blessedness of intimate association with Him as LORD (Malachi 2:15). Godly "fathering" will make the greatest impact in helping highly impressionable young ones to live lives of faithfulness to the LORD.