What Sons Need from their Father's

Getting rained on at the Maryland vs West Virginia football game

There is a fatherhood crisis in our country. It seem that in every survey I see the number of boys being raised without father increases. The results of boys being raised without a dependable father or father figure are tragic. But I don't want to go into into all the negative outcomes, but instead I want to stay on the solution side of this epidemic. I want to cheer on those fathers that are there provide a solid male role model for their children. I want to salute all the single mothers who do their best to be both father and mother in their children's lives. And I want to say thank you to all those who are father figures in the lives of children that were not born to them. Stay with it. Keep up the great work! You are making a greater difference than you realize providing what your sons need the most. 

I think what good fathers provide is best described by John Eldred in his book The Way of the Wild Heart. John writes, 

"I am not the first to point out that children -boys being the subject here -need two basic messages when they are growing up: you are loved more than you can possibly imagine, and, you are not the center of the universe. Without the first, a boy will grow up insecure, uncertain, looking for love and finding it difficult to believe that he is worthy of being loved, even by God. Without the second, he will grow up selfish and self-centered, assuming that everyone else's agenda bows to his own (p71)."