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A Call to be Faithful

“Children in father-absent homes are almost four times more likely to be poor. In 2011, 12 percent of children in married-couple families were living in poverty, compared to 44 percent of children in mother-only families.”

“Children of single-parent homes are more than twice as likely to commit suicide.”

“71% of high school dropouts are fatherless” 

“Results revealed that if the number of fathers is low in a neighborhood, then there is an increase in acts of teen violence.”

I don’t know about you but at times I read those statistics and guilt starts to creep in. I begin to think, “I should be doing more.”

“I could be doing more.”

“I must do more!”

“Everyone should be doing more!”

And the truth is maybe I should be doing more to help at-risk youth in our city and in our country. The truth is maybe we should all be doing more to help stem the tide of the fatherless epidemic that is pouring through our cities.

Guilt however is not a lasting motivator. What keeps us in the struggle to help at-risk youth and their families in our city is the overwhelming call of our Heavenly Father to be found faithful.

1 Corinthians 4:2 says, “Now it is required that those who have been given a trust must prove faithful.”

At Youth Horizons we have been given a trust. Our trust is the be a part of God’s work in communicating to abused and abandoned children that they ARE people of value!

We cannot – and I cannot – fix all the issues facing youth and their families in our city. But I can be faithful with the children God has placed in my life. I can be faithful to love the boys at our residential home. I can be faithful to invest in my protégé. I can be a faithful husband and father, and with God’s help keep the cycle of fatherless from growing in my family.

In the end, the ultimate measure for me and for you is, “have we been faithful?”

I will not stem the tide of fatherlessness in America alone, but I can be faithful in one child’s life. I can be faithful in my children’s lives. With God’s help, I will remain faithful.

Thank you for standing with us. If you are feeling overwhelmed by the problems that our youth face, then ask yourself, “Am I being faithful?” If your answer is yes, then carry on. If you answer no or you are unsure, then ask our God to show you how you can be faithful.