I heard an old man once say…
 
“If you are a messed-up man and you have a family, you are going to help make a messed-up family.
 
If you are a messed-up man contributing to a messed-up family resulting in a messed-up church causing a messed-up neighborhood and your neighborhood is part of a city, well then, your messed-up neighborhood is going to make its contribution to a messed-up city.
 
So, a messed-up man contributing to a messed-up family in a messed-up church causing a messed-up neighborhood that resides in the messed-up city, and your city is part of the county, now your messed-up city is going to make its contribution to a messed-up county …”
 
And on and on the pain and destruction continues to impact more and more if not stopped. The old man continued:
 
“If you want a better world, composed of better countries, better states, better counties, better cities, inhabited by better neighborhoods, illuminated by better churches made up of better families, we have to start by becoming better fathers, because it all rests on the position of the father.”
 
“Remember the law of my servant Moses, the decrees and laws I gave him at Horeb for all Israel.
 
See, I will send the prophet Elijah to you before that great and dreadful day of the Lord comes. He will turn the hearts of the parents to their children, and the hearts of the children to their parents; or else I will come and strike the land with total destruction.” – Malachi 4:4-6

The role of the father and father figures in our life is vital to the transformation of the next generation! It is time to wake up fathers … Lead by example and love your families well.

Written by Miguel Arzate, community coordinator for the Buckner Family Hope Center® at Bachman Lake in Dallas.

Learn more about how Buckner can support you as a father.