No Greater Calling Part 1

Brothers and Sisters, my friends. Today I come to share with you a subject that I hope to express with a tender heart. A delicate subject, but an important one. My assignment is also to share with you insights from another source that I will get to shortly.

There are many things I would like to say, but I hope that the message is clear. Although the message is about one particular audience, I hope all our hearts and ears are open and can learn something about a particular calling, title, and responsibility. To paraphrase something we have heard before, there is no greater calling than Husband and Father and Wife and Mother. Today's emphasis will be on the particular calling, title, and responsibility of a "Father." There is much to say about Wives and Mothers, and we would be nothing without them, and I will share much about them in the future. But today I wish to focus specifically on Dads.

Before we move on I would like to illustrate some examples. We have many good depictions in films, music, stories about Fathers, but not as much anymore, and as time goes by the value of fathers is decreasing in all of these realms of entertainment. We are also seeing a decline on what good fathers should act like. Unfortunately, in traditional families not a lot of kids are growing up with a Dad.

I saw a poster once that said, "He has an M.B.A and a PhD, but more importantly he's a D.A.D." The message was simple and I hope it paints the picture of what I'm trying to make today. Young men in grade school, High school, and even in college, we are asked what we want to be when we "grow up." I hope the profession you choose is one you enjoy and will provide for your family. But may I encourage one thing, I hope your answer is also, "When I grow up I want to be a good husband to my wife, and a good dad for my kids." Or you can replace good with great, or even with best. There is nothing more important than this my young friends.

Men, my brethren, we have a sacred calling upon us and we cannot allow ourselves to lose sight of that. I know that some do not have a father in the home, and I mean no disrespect, and it is unfortunate. I know that there are many single mothers, and I know that it is hard and I know that many have been able to pull through the thick and thin and this is admirable. I don't seek to poke anyone in the face, all I am meaning with these words is that there is value in fatherhood, there is a need for a father in the home.

W. Bradford Wilcox a professor of Sociology at the University of Virginia wrote an article that is found on the website The Atlantic entitled "The Distinct, Positive Impact of a Good Dad". He introduces his article by stating that many scholars and celebrities are saying that there is no need for a Dad in the home. But he argues several ways that Dad's make "distinct contributions" in the lives of their children. (See article paragraph four.)

He cites these:

The Power of Play. Here Wilcox discusses that fathers play differently with their children and how it is different to how the mother plays, and how their behavior turns out from this kind of play.

Encouraging Risk. Wilcox says, Fathers "in their approach to child-bearing, are more likely to encourage their children to take risks, embrace challenges, be independent, whereas mothers are more likely to focus on their children's safety and emotional well being."

Wilcox also describes how fathers protect their families. He identifies that even though mothers also have protective instincts, fathers who are "engaged in their children's lives can better monitor their children's comings and goings, as well as the peers and adults in their lives, compared to disengaged or absent fathers." He also mentions that fathers "appear to be more successful in keeping predators and bad peer influences away from their sons and daughters."

Later Wilcox talks about how boys are less likely to participate in delinquent behavior if they have a good relationship with their father. He says that if daughters have at least an "average" relationship with their dads, they are also less likely to be pregnant when they are teenagers.

I encourage you to look and see what you can find in his article to shed more light on this subject.

This subject is not even fully explored. There are many different ways we can see the importance of having a father in the home. I hope that I have done a good job sharing just a small part of it, and that what I have shared as my personal opinion can be of some use.

We need good Dad's. We need great Dad's, we need the best Dad's. We are not perfect, but we can make such a difference in the lives of our families. Even Christ went to His Dad for guidance, direction, and safety. Heavenly Father is the prime example of a loving, caring, and engaged father.

There is no greater calling than a Husband and Father and a Wife and Mother.