Today’s culture is marked by broken homes, generally the result of a man and woman who are unhappy with their relationship and one or both feel entitled to personal happiness. In my experience, most couples assume there will be little impact on their children. This presupposition is clearly self-serving and, from what I have read and experienced, it is incorrect.
Divorce disrupts the divinely ordained context for raising children. Both a mother and a father are needed to prepare children for their divinely ordained life purpose.
In particular, it is the role of the father to call out a child's destiny. Note the text above. It is a role of fathers to urge their children to live worthy of the Lord.
Paul was not the biological father of the Thessalonians, nevertheless, he stated that he functioned as a father to them—that is, a spiritual father. Hence, urging children to live worthy of the Lord is the role of both physical and spiritual fathers.
Living a life worthy of the Lord implies a life aligned with the nature of God—a life of obedience to God characterized by living according to a biblical worldview. This includes living in obedience to the specific call of God; everyone has a divinely ordained call.
If God is strategic and intentional, then fathers (physical and spiritual) must help their children discover and fulfill their life calling. They must help their children reach their potential. In other words, a key role of fathers is to release and empower their children to find and fulfill the will of God.
To do this, fathers must spend time and be engaged with their children. Broken homes are impediments to the role of physical fathers. Also, physical and/or spiritual fathers are impeded by the spiritual divorce known as “independence”—living disconnected from a healthy community.
Many people view independence as a virtue. Being self-made, making your own decisions, and pulling yourself up by your bootstraps are admired qualities. But we are called to live in community and those qualities of independence are inconsistent with the interdependent qualities of a community. Remember, it is not good for man to be alone (Genesis 2:18).
For a physical and/or spiritual father to play his part in the kingdom of God, he must model how to live a life worthy of the Lord, a life of submission to God as expressed by submission to fathers and community interdependence.
Here is your business tip: Identify and submit to the fathers in your life—both natural and spiritual. Since your fathers were sovereignly placed in your life, expect the Holy Spirit to use your fathers to teach you lessons that will help identify and release your full potential. Also, be cautious about hiring anyone who is disconnected from fathers or anyone who is fathered by an independent and/or divorced father. The pattern of independence and/or divorce in fathers is often reproduced in children, which limits the children's potential. An organization achieves greatness when the people in the organization are each in their right place and working in the fullness of their potential. |
