calling all guys

…who like long walks on the beach, surfing, can change their own oil…

oh my goodness I’m totally kidding.  completely and 100%.

the following stats I read from the Acquire the Fire (ATF) Collision Course (a 6-week-ish follow-up study to the ATF weekend we took teens to in Tampa in April):

• 70% of juveniles in state-operated institutions come from fatherless homes (U.S. Dept. of Justice, Special Report, Sept. 1988).
• 85% of all children that exhibit behavioral disorders come from fatherless homes (U.S. Center for Disease Control).
• 63% of youth suicides are from fatherless homes (U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, Bureau of the Census).
• Tonight, about 40% of American children will go to sleep in homes in which their fathers do not live (Fatherless America: Confronting Our Most Urgent Social Problem by David Blankenhorn).
• 71% of all high school dropouts come from fatherless homes (National Principals Association Report on the State of High Schools).

does that rock anyone else’s world?  it totally rocks mine.  I knew youth from broken homes are more prone to have their share of struggles.  but to have stats laid out like that…?

it’s at times like these that I wish I was a guy.  :)  but God made me a girl.  and I know girls have their own roles and influences and all that.  but when I hear stats like that, I just want to be a guy and go mentor youth and be a father to them.  thankfully, my God is a Father to the fatherless (Psalm 68:5).  He can fulfill the Father role abundantly more than I ever could, even if I was a guy.

which leads me to 2 conclusions.  youth need to know about this Father to the fatherless, especially those without an earthly father in their lives, but even those who do have dads in their lives – because even our earthly dads will fall short sometimes because they’re human (although my dad pretty much always rocks and I love him :) ).

and secondly, guys need to step it up.  fathers need to be fathers.  fathers need to be mentors to those without fathers.  guys who aren’t fathers need to step it up and be mentors to those without fathers.  even be mentors to those with fathers.

guys – go do something.

 

and as a disclaimer, yes, girls/mothers have their roles too and we definitely need to step it up as well.  this list of stats was just about the fatherless homes though – hence the sound off on guys.

totally off topic, but I kind of think it’d be funny to make a shirt that says, “I Survived the Rapture of 2011”. but then I wonder if it’d be taken as humorous to others.  :)  it’s more pointing out the foolishness of claiming we know the day and hour when Jesus returns – when Scripture says no one knows and that He will come like a thief in the night.

I laid sod today.  that was fun.  I felt like…I don’t know what I felt like, but I felt good.  :)

keep it real.