Week 10- Fathers and Mothers Have a Great Role in the Lives of their Children

One of my very favorite church songs is titled, “The Family is of God” in this song there is a great reminder of the eternal and heavenly purpose of both mothers and fathers in a family. The lyrics are as follows, “2. A father’s place is to preside, provide, To love and teach the gospel to his children. A father leads in fam’ly prayer to share Their love for Father in Heaven. 3. A mother’s purpose is to care, prepare, To nurture and to strengthen all her children. She teaches children to obey, to pray, To love and serve in the fam’ly.” From a gospel perspective it is very easy to see that there is a great purpose and need for both a father and mother in the home. Their relationship should work together, hand in hand to rear their children to be able to return with Heavenly Father. 

In The Family: A proclamation to the World there are so many additional points of information on how mothers and fathers should work together, their roles as parents and right that children have to be born within the bond of matrimony, being raised by both parents. While both parents are taught to work together the roles of each parent can be separated out and given great value even still. Therefore, giving great purpose to father’s presence in the life of their child. 

Beyond a gospel perspective we see that the importance of father’s impact on the life of the child is grand. After a 2018 shooting in Florida an article was written discussing the decrease in violence with the presences of a supportive father figure in the lives of children. In looking at the statistics of the shooters most being male the research showed that only 1 of the top 27 deadliest shooting suspects had a biological dad present in their life. Many other things are brought to pass due to an absent father such as an increase in delinquent behavior and other future problems in their own relationships and family creation. 

There are times in a family when the children may view the dad as the more fun parent. Especially if they have spent a day at home with their mom who may be helping them with homework or having to constantly say no to things and later in the day the dad returns home from work and begins the party of fun and allowing more things. The time that both parents are home is often closer to bedtime after all the hard chores of the day are done and it is often a time of high reward. The dad being home is not the cause but there is a correlation of the dad being home and being able to participate in more fun activities as a wind down from a stressful day before bedtime. This is an important time to be reminded of the importance of working together as husband and wife to ensure respect for both parents. This can be a great time for the father so sent an example to his children of how to love his wife and respect her and her time.

Many children grow up to find relationships that are like their parents as that is the greatest example of a relationship that they will have in their life. The example of a relationship is set by the parents, and they are the ones who can control how good or bad it is. It is not always great though; it is often the only thing that children know when they grow up and that is often why they pattern relationships after their parents. There is a union of love and respect that can be built when both parents are home and the relationship that they build can be the greatest thing that they can do for their kids’ future. There is great value in having both mother and father present in the home and their roles cannot easily be replaced.