Good News And Bad

TITLE: Good News and Bad
DATE: May 27, 2019
TEXT: Ephesians 6:4  - ESV - Fathers, do not provoke your children to anger, but bring them up in the discipline and instruction of the Lord.

A new book put out by the Barna polling company is called: Households of Faith. That book offers good news and bad news for Christian families.
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Let me share some of the raw information and see if  you are able to discern a pattern.

• The study showed that 68% of believers who were raised in a Christian home were touched by the faith of their mother and 46% were impacted by their father.
• When it comes to praying or talking about God, most polled Christian teens said they would go to mother rather than their father.
• The poll asked, who “encourages me to go to church”; and “talks with me about God’s forgiveness” and “teaches me about the Bible?”  Once again the mom’s won out over the dad’s.
• The questions continued. When the young people were asked, do you go to your mother or father when you need encouragement, advice and sympathy?”; Moms won out once again.

Now at this point you may be asking: are there any categories where fathers scored higher than mothers. I’m pleased to tell you there are. Indeed, there were three categories where the Dad’s put in a solid performance. Those categories are:

1. When the teens need money,
2. When they need logistical help, and
3. When they want a parent to play sports. 

So, you’ve probably figured it out by now…

THE GOOD NEWS IS: the study shows: “the outsized impact that mothers have, both on their children's spiritual formation as well as their character development.

THE BAD NEWS IS: the same couldn’t be said for fathers. One of the researchers concluded: “It became apparent as we explored the research, that practicing Christians just don't really seem to share a lot of quality time with their fathers, compared to other immediate and even sometimes extended household ties.”

So, good news and bad news.

Of course, there is one more bit of good news. That is the news which says that those who have been washed of their sins by the Savior’s sacrifice are not forced to remain where they are. When we are brought into the marvelous light of the Lord, we are freed to do things differently; to live differently; to be moved ever closer to the ideal that the Lord wishes for His people.

Which  means a Christen Father really can be a spiritual father as well as the go-to-guy for allowance money, for directions and to play sports. 

THE PRAYER: Dear Lord, when humankind sinned, Your vision for humanity was corrupted. Grant that by the Holy Spirit’s power, as much as is possible, believers may be changed and live up to that vision You have for each of us. In Jesus’ Name. Amen.

The devotion for today was inspired by various recent news articles. For further reading you may wish to go to this sitehttps://www.christianheadlines.com/contributors/michael-foust/moms-are-influencing-children-for-christ-dads-not-so-much-survey-finds.html and the article written by Michael Foust on March 22, 2019:

The music which introduces and concludes our devotions was written by Guy Baumann. He along with three of his brothers perform on the album: The Baumann Brothers which may be ordered here: http://thebaumannbrothers.com/index.html