The month of August is known in Brazil as the Father´s month. This is because every year on the second Sunday of August, Brazilians stop to celebrate and congratulate their fathers on this special date.
Interestingly, Brazil celebrates Father’s Day on a different date than other countries, which celebrate Father’s Day in June. According to research, the first date marked in the United States as Father’s Day was June 19, 1910, when Sonora Louise Smart Dodd wanted to honor her father who raised all the children alone after the death of his wife.
She got the date across the country, and in 1966 the third Sunday in June was officially chosen as Father’s Day. In 1972, President Nixon made the national holiday official.
Portuguese Senior Producer Romulo Fontes with his children.
In Brazil this holiday was created in 1953, a Friday, by publicist Sylvio Bhering, who was inspired by the American celebration. The first Brazilian Father’s Day took place on August 14, 1953, later made official as the second Sunday of August.
The reason I want to emphasize this special date is that we have just recorded a series about exactly what influence a father has on the lives of his children. Unfortunately the world tries to confuse us and say that the father is not important. The fact is that a statistic made by various North American institutes and revealed in the movie Courageous (you can see it on Netflix) states the following about the influence of parents on their children:
71% of pregnant teenagers have no father;
63% of youth suicides are from fatherless households;
85% of children with behavioral disorder come from homes without parents;
80% of rapists come from homes without parents;
71% of all high school dropouts come from homes without parents;
85% of all young people in prison come from homes without parents.
When I saw these statistics I was terrified. I believe that Brazil is no different from that. These numbers reveal the importance and relevance of the father in relation to the children as well as the difference that their presence or absence makes in their homes.
Today we live in a world in which we are all connected, always being connected to a screen, whether it’s mobile, television, or tablet. Unfortunately many parents have begun neglecting their children to spend time on social networks and various other technological means that take them away from the family. Quality time with your children is so, so important!
Quality time does not necessarily mean a special date or a long time set to play, but to spend time on a daily basis. It is the daily presence, even in small doses, but with a high quality of delivery, that makes the difference.
The Bible tells us the importance of teaching children the way, and it says:
-
- Train up a child in the way he should go: and when he is old, he will not depart from it (Proverbs 22:6). “In the way” means to be with him during the route.
Another very important verse is in Deuteronomy 6: 5-9:
-
- And thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thine heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy might.
- And these words, which I command thee this day, shall be in thine heart:
- And thou shalt teach them diligently unto thy children, and shalt talk of them when thou sittest in thine house, and when thou walkest by the way, and when thou liest down, and when thou risest up.
- And thou shalt bind them for a sign upon thine hand, and they shall be as frontlets between thine eyes.
- And thou shalt write them upon the posts of thy house, and on thy gates.
From these principles and many others from the Bible, in our fourth program recordings we highlight the important influence parents have on their children’s spiritual lives in the following ways: Creating opportunities for their child’s true conversion, building a Christian character, conduct at their job, and finally preparing children for marriage.
Romulo with Ivan Goncalves who just finished writing and recording a series on Psalms.
We cannot deny that the father has a vital importance in the life of his children. He is the spiritual leader of his house, he is the provider, he is the father! May we all be true parents who do not outsource their responsibilities to others but who truly seek to do what God the great Father of us all teaches us.
God Bless us!
