I Timothy 5:8 “But if anyone does not provide for his relatives, and especially for members of his household, he has denied the faith and is worse than an unbeliever.”

Last week we started a series on PERSEVERANCE and how it is an important character trait and responsibility of a man’s leadership. This week, I want to focus on perseverance as a husband and father. Other than leading your personal life in Christ, it is your top priority. If you are married and have children, you well know that perseverance is required to lead both. Unfortunately, we live in a world today where many men are unwilling to stay in a marriage and parenting relationship and take the easy way out. It reminds me of the college athlete transfer portal today and the easy way out. The lack of perseverance in families has become a part of our culture today and the consequences are often devastating in the lives of those involved. When families are broken apart in this way, so many children become fatherless which is not how God designed it to be. God’s perseverance as a Father to us should be our example to follow.

Several years ago, I read a powerful and sobering book that had researched the problems in our culture from fatherlessness. The book by David Blankenhorn is titled, Fatherless America: Confronting Our Most Urgent Social Problem. It carefully detailed the effects of this breakdown in our culture. Here are some of the major consequences:

• Over 40% of all children do not live in the home of their biological father. This number amounts to 24 million children or 40 football stadiums holding 60,000 each.
• Over 18 million children go to bed each night with NO father in the home.
• 70% of men in prison had no father in the home.
• 63% of youth suicides come from a fatherless home.
• 71% of high school dropouts come from fatherless homes.
• 84% of child abuse occurs in single mother homes.
• 66% of children in poverty live in single mother homes.
• 90% of homeless and runaway children come from fatherless homes.
• Almost 1.5 million children see their parents divorce each year.
• Over 30% of all children are born out of wedlock and into homes with no fathers.

These numbers are alarming and sad, but just remember that all these numbers belong to a child with a name and life. Most are the result of divorce and family breakdown due to a lack of perseverance and commitment to being a godly husband and father. Men, persevere to lead your family, and do not run out on them. God will never leave or forsake you and neither should you.