In this episode we're going to explore the connection between Fatherhood, God and you and why it matters. We will also dive deeper in to the meaning and purpose of Malachi 4:6. To learn more about The Fatherhood Challenge or listen to other episodes, visit thefatherhoodchallenge.com or you can find The Fatherhood Challenge by that name on any major podcast listening app.Create your podcast today! #madeonzencastrhttps://zencastr.com/?via=thefatherhoodchallengeTranscription - Fatherhood, God and You---Welcome to the Fatherhood Challenge, a movement to awaken and inspire fathers everywhere,to take great pride in their role, and a challenge society to understand how importantfathers are to the stability and culture of their family's environment.Now here's your host, Jonathan Guerrero.Greetings everyone, thank you so much for joining me.There's not a minute to waste on this episode, so we're going to skip the usualdad jokes and we're going to dive right in. The mission and purpose of the Fatherhood Challengeis based on Malachi 4/6, which is turning the hearts of fathers to their children.Every episode, everything done by this program has to align and center around thatscripture verse and mission, so please take the time to read Malachi 4/6 for yourselfand become well acquainted with it. Your future depends on it.For those of you listening to this program for the first time,let me share my story on how this program started. The reason God put this program into the world,is not for my benefit, although I have personally learned a lot and grown a lot from some of theepisodes produced. God intended this program to warn the world of the horrible consequences of nottaking the warning of Malachi 4/6 seriously. God cares so much about relationships in the home.God cares about dads. He cares about the Father, son, father, daughter relationship. He cares aboutmarriages too. Why? Because they all impact how we see the process and understand God. God is so good.He always has been. He always will be. He has given us nothing but good things, good gifts, the giftsof family. We human beings are the ones who have trashed and ruined his gifts. Then we blame God forsomething we as humans did to the perfect gifts that he gave to us. Then we try and repair thebroken gifts ourselves and reject anything from God going forward. Imagine if you gave someone a perfectgift out of love, hoping that it would also help that person understand you a little better and theytrashed your gift. They rejected you instead. How would you feel about that person? Would you love themanyway and still try to connect with them? This is God. This is who God is. What does this rejection looklike for us today? Approximately 18.3 million children. That's about one in four are growing up without abiological father in the United States. It is also still one in four globally. South Africa oftenreports one of the highest rates of fatherlessness with estimates suggesting that around 60% of childrengrow up without a father. Let me share some impact on the damage fatherlessness does to children.Let's look at this from an angle of mental health. Anxiety and depression for example research showsthat children without fathers are two to three times more likely to suffer from anxiety and depression.Now let's move on to conduct disorders. Higher prevalence of issues like ADHD and behavioral problemsleading to difficulties in school and relationships are also likely. Now let's talk about theeconomic consequences. For example poverty rates. Fathersless families are over four times morelikely to live in poverty with around 30% of those households facing food insecurity. Then let's talkabout education attainment. Fathersless children have 71% higher chance of dropping out of high school,limiting future job prospects and earning potential. What about crime? How does fatherlessnessimpact crime? I'm going to share two points of this. There's a lot more to talk about with crime,but for the sake of time we're keeping it very, very brief. Juvenile delinquency when it comes to thatchildren from fatherless homes are two to three times more likely to be involved in criminalactivities, including theft and gang involvement. What about incarceration? About 85% of youth in prisonscome from father absent homes, indicating a strong correlation between father absence and criminalbehavior. Now let's move on to the spiritual aspect, the spiritual consequences. As far as moraldevelopment is concerned, lack of a father figure can lead to uncertainty about values, ethics,resulting in moral confusion. Then let's talk about identity issues. Many fatherless children strugglewith their sense of identity, which can hinder spiritual growth and community involvement.You've heard me many, many, many times on this program be a broken record talking about theimportance of finding your identity and purpose. The world likes to define this in other terms,in psychological terms and other terms, but it ...
