Good Fathers Reach Out to the Fatherless
God truly cares about the fatherless. Depending on which Biblical translation you read, the word “fatherless” is mentioned over 40 times. In fact, in Psalms 68:5, God is described as the “father to the fatherless.” Moreover, Deuteronomy 10:18 says that God “defends the cause of the fatherless.” Therefore, it certainly stands to reason that if God, the ultimate Good Father whom every dad should use as a model, cares so deeply about the fatherless, any father who wants to be a good one should as well. Accordingly, God has impressed upon my heart that a good father provides for, nurture, and guide his own children and he must proactively seek to be a role model and mentor for other children who lack a father’s love and guidance.
There is a wonderful example of this principle in the life of David. You may recall that David and Jonathan, King Saul’s son, shared a special friendship. In fact, when Saul sought to unjustly kill David, Jonathan tried to protect David, even to the point of risking his own life. In any case, Jonathan was eventually killed in battle and he left behind a son named Mephibosheth, who had been made a cripple when a nurse dropped him. When David became king, he found this young man and gave him all that belonged to Saul. Moreover, he declared that Mephibosheth would forevermore eat at the king’s table. Now, David certainly made a “bad dad” mistake in his dealings with his sons Amnon and Absalom but, in this case, David truly demonstrated that he was a man after God’s heart. He essentially became a father to the fatherless.
Several years ago, in my work with National Fatherhood Initiative, I coined a term that reflects the principle of what David did. I called it being a “Double Duty Dad.” In fact, we developed a program, which includes free downloadable resources, designed to help dads truly live out this important aspect of fathering. Why? Because Double Duty Dads are needed now more than ever. Tonight, 18 million kids—1 out of 4 children—will go to bed in a home without a biological, step, or adoptive father. Moreover, according to the National Mentoring Partnership, nearly 9 million kids want or need mentoring.
You are probably saying about now, “I have my hands full with my own kids…How could I possibly sign up to be a mentor to someone else’s child?” Well, that’s the beauty of the Double Duty Dad concept. It doesn’t require you to sign up for anything. You don’t have to “look out” but rather “look down and around,” like David did, to positively impact a child who is within your own “circle of influence.” So, the fatherless child that you reach out to could be a niece or nephew, your next-door neighbor’s kids, someone from your church’s youth group, or a kid on a youth sports team that you coach for your children. If they are local, you can easily and intentionally include this child into activities that you are already doing with your children. If they live far away, something as simple as a weekly call or periodic notes of encouragement would be easy for you to do, but mean so much to a vulnerable child in need. Again, remember how John Muhammad was able to get young Lee Malvo under his deadly sway to become the deadly DC Sniper. Kids who don’t have Double Duty Dads are easy prey for “double dangerous dads.” Accordingly, a small commitment on your part could change a child’s life forever and save the lives of countless people that you will never know.
The bottom line is that being a Double Duty Dad is something that nearly every father can do. And I believe that it is something that God calls every father to do. There are 74 million fathers in America. Just imagine what would happen in our churches, schools, neighborhoods, and communities if an “army” of good fathers reached out to fatherless children in this way! After all, every good dad has something that every fatherless child desperately needs. They have a wellspring of experience and knowledge that has been invaluable for their own children. Moreover, simply by being intentional and including a fatherless child in some of the activities that they do with their children, they can help break the long-term cycle of father absence and the negative outcomes that fatherless children disproportionally face. A Double Duty Dad does the sacred and God-honoring work of modeling what it means to be an involved, responsible, and committed godly father—someone that a boy can be inspired to be and that a girl can be inspired to have in the life of her children.
Ad-Free & Subscriber Log-In