“The supreme test of any civilization is whether or not it can teach men to be good fathers”
- Margaret Meade, cultural anthropologist

“Every social ill that we are dealing with is directly or indirectly related to fatherlessness”
- Otto Kelly, executive director of Crisis Pregnancy Center, Reno Nevada

Do the above quotes reflect the truth?  Consider the statistics below…

• 1 out of every 3 children grow up without the presence of their biological father
• Fatherless children are 10 x more likely to abuse chemical substances
• Fatherless children are 4 x more likely to be living in poverty
• Fatherless young women are 164% more likely to have premarital sex
• Fatherless young women are 53% more likely to marry as teenagers
• Fatherless young women who marry are 92% more likely to get divorced
• Fatherless young women are 4 x more likely to have a child while in their teens
• Young women who have conceived a child are more than 2 x more likely to lose the child if their father is not supportive
• Fatherless children are 2 x more likely to drop out of school
• Fatherless children are 2 x more likely to commit suicide
• 85% of young men in prison are from fatherless homes
• 75% of rapists are found to be acting out anger due to a sense of abandonment by their fathers

We tend to pattern our perception of God after the perception we have of our earthly father.  Is it any wonder, therefore, that fatherlessness has led to Godlessness?

What this all means is that fathers simply by being present, even when minimally active in the lives of their children make a huge difference.

Stay in the fight for your children, dads.  Your commitment to being a father will have an impact on the lives of your children, and indeed, the world, that will last into eternity.