OUTLINE:
The More I Love…
Blog – 5/21/21
Obedience (aka righteousness) means peace.
The Downfall of “Drama”
- “Bad” drama: easy to understand, right?
- “Good” drama: harder to understand, but in some ways MORE insidious because it’s covert!
Self-Absorption Precludes Big-Picture Thinking
“Drama kings and queens” spend too much time hyper-focused on themselves and their own problems. This is a very sticky form of dysfunction that destroys any real hope of stepping back and seeing the big-picture!
Jas 1:22 [Amplified]
But prove yourselves doers of the word [actively and continually obeying God’s precepts], and not merely listeners [who hear the word but fail to internalize its meaning], deluding yourselves [by unsound reasoning contrary to the truth].
Jas 1:22 [NLT]
But don’t just listen to God’s word. You must do what it says. Otherwise, you are only fooling yourselves.
Obedience (aka righteousness) means peace.
It’s never enough to simply know something is true.
It’s time to “clean house”!!!
Ps 37:4-5
Delight yourself in the LORD,
and he will give you the desires of your heart.
Commit your way to the LORD;
trust in him, and he will act.
Divine Institutions
God is the one who created the institutions of marriage and family. He also chose to make us in His own image. So, it makes sense that since family is a big deal to God, then it’s a big deal to us, as well.
God loves godly families.
The Value of Discipline in the Family
The earlier you establish sound discipline in the family, the happier and more peaceful your family will be in the long run. The Spirit wants us to know what a godly family structure looks like so that we can model our own after it, and be blessed!
Teaching Us Love
God uses godly families to teach children about His love, from a practical perspective. The divine institutions of marriage and family are actually the platforms God uses to teach others about His love. Godly families aren’t necessarily the end goal; rather, they are the vehicle – the context for love to shine.
The Extent of Fatherlessness- fathers.com
More than 20 million children live in a home without the physical presence of a father. Millions more have dads who are physically present, but emotionally absent. If it were classified as a disease, fatherlessness would be an epidemic worthy of attention as a national emergency.
TheFatherlessGeneration.wordpress.com/statistics/
- 63% of youth suicides are from fatherless homes (US Dept. Of Health/Census) – 5 times the average.
- 90% of all homeless and runaway children are from fatherless homes – 32 times the average.
- 85% of all children who show behavior disorders come from fatherless homes – 20 times the average. (Center for Disease Control)
TheFatherlessGeneration.wordpress.com/statistics/
- 80% of rapists with anger problems come from fatherless homes – 14 times the average. (Justice & Behavior, Vol 14, p. 403-26)
- 71% of all high school dropouts come from fatherless homes – 9 times the average. (National Principals Association Report)
- Father Factor in Education – Fatherless children are twice as likely to drop out of school.
TheFatherlessGeneration.wordpress.com/statistics/
- Children with Fathers who are involved are 40% less likely to repeat a grade in school.
- Children with Fathers who are involved are 70% less likely to drop out of school.
- Children with Fathers who are involved are more likely to get A’s in school.
- Children with Fathers who are involved are more likely to enjoy school and engage in extracurricular activities.
TheFatherlessGeneration.wordpress.com/statistics/
- 75% of all adolescent patients in chemical abuse centers come from fatherless homes – 10 times the average.
- Father Factor in Drug and Alcohol Abuse – Researchers at Columbia University found that children living in two-parent household with a poor relationship with their father are 68% more likely to smoke, drink, or use drugs compared to all teens in two-parent households.
TheFatherlessGeneration.wordpress.com/statistics/
- 70% of youths in state-operated institutions come from fatherless homes – 9 times the average. (U.S. Dept. of Justice, Sept. 1988)
- 85% of all youths in prison come from fatherless homes – 20 times the average. (Fulton Co. Georgia, Texas Dept. of Correction)
- Father Factor in Crime – A study of 109 juvenile offenders indicated that family structure significantly predicts delinquency. Adolescents, particularly boys, in single-parent families were at higher risk of status, property and person delinquencies.
TheFatherlessGeneration.wordpress.com/statistics/
Daughters of single parents without a Father involved are:
- 53% more likely to marry as teenagers
- 711% more likely to have children as teenagers
- 164% more likely to have a pre-marital birth
- 92% more likely to get divorced themselves.
TheFatherlessGeneration.wordpress.com/statistics/
Children with involved, loving fathers are significantly more likely to do well in school, have healthy self-esteem, exhibit empathy and pro-social behavior, and avoid high-risk behaviors such as drug use, truancy, and criminal activity compared to children who have uninvolved fathers.
TheFatherlessGeneration.wordpress.com/statistics/
Children who live absent their biological fathers are, on average, at least two to three times more likely to be poor, to use drugs, to experience educational, health, emotional and behavioral problems, to be victims of child abuse, and to engage in criminal behavior than their peers who live with their married, biological (or adoptive) parents.
TheFatherlessGeneration.wordpress.com/statistics/
Studies on parent-child relationships and child wellbeing show that father love is an important factor in predicting the social, emotional, and cognitive development and functioning of children and young adults.
Undisciplined, Anti-Authority-Oriented Families
- Disrespectful children (not just teens, but before and long after as adult children)
- Divorce (arguably the most common cause is confusion regarding roles)
- Fractured community/country (what goes on in the family propagates to larger groups)
The Peaceful Home
byhiswell.org – blog – 5/22/21
Discipline in the family is an expression of love.
Parents, get your acts together!
The Value of Family
Disciplined, well-adjusted children from godly homes make for great subordinates because authority-orientation was instilled in them at an early age, and they are blessed for it (and become blessings for others, especially those in authority) (Eph 6:5).
The Value of Family
Undisciplined, maladjusted children from ungodly homes make for horrible subordinates because authority-orientation was never instilled in them, and they are cursed for it (and become a cursing for others, especially those in authority).
Godliness in families pays dividends for life!
The Value of Family
There’s an intrinsic goodness that blankets a godly family that is unmistakably a blessing from God designed to encourage such families to persist in the faith.
The Danger of Skewed Perception
Disoriented people make terrible, life-changing decisions about marriage and family due to false presumptions about what these divinely ordained institutions were meant to be. When this all plays out, there’s inevitably pain and suffering, ESPECIALLY when those involved are believers.
The Danger of Skewed Perception
For believers, what was meant to be a blessing, turns into a curse! That is the fate of the believer who enters into marriage and family with little or no regard for God’s will.
An obedient person is a protected person.