The Father Factor: Why Dads Are Essential to Healthy Family Formation

A Chapter a Day

• Sunday, June 21, Hebrews 5
• Monday, June 22, Hebrews 6
• Tuesday, June 23, Hebrews 7
• Wednesday, June 24, Hebrews 8
• Thursday, June 25, Hebrews 9
• Friday, June 26, Hebrews 10
• Saturday, June 27, Hebrews 11

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Both and are essential to healthy family formation.

²⁷  So God created man in his own image,
in the image of God he created him;
male and female he created them.

²⁸ And God blessed them. And God said to them, “Be fruitful and multiply and fill the earth and subdue it, …
(Genesis 1:27-28a, ESV; Matthew 19:4, Mark 10:6)

¹² “Honor your father and your mother, that your days may be long in the land that the Lord your God is giving you. (Exodus 20:12, ESV; Matthew 15:4-6; Mark 7:9-13; Ephesians 6:2-3; 1 Timothy 5:4)

• Decline in commitment

In a Father’s Day speech in Chicago while running for president in 2008, then candidate Barack Obama said:

“If we are honest with ourselves, we’ll admit that . . . too many fathers [are] missing from too many lives and too many homes. They have abandoned their responsibilities, acting like boys instead of men. . . . We know the statistics—that children who grow up without a father are five times more likely to live in poverty and commit a crime; nine times more likely to drop out of school and 20 times more likely to end up in prison.” (Cited by Heather MacDonald, The War on Cops: How the New Attack on Law and Order Makes Everyone Less Safe, Encounter Books: 2016, p. 135)

1. Fathers are essential to .

2. Fathers are essential to .

3. Fathers are essential to .

4. Fathers are essential to loving .

5. Fathers are essential to .

6. Fathers are essential to -taking that leads to .

7. Fathers are essential to development.

Fathers, do not provoke your children to anger, but bring them up in the discipline and instruction of the Lord. (Ephesians 6:4, ESV)