It has been said over and over that fatherhood is destiny. This is why the prayer of so many young boys today is to become a father. Fatherhood holds the key to the salvation and restoration of mankind. The Biblical prophet Malachi spoke of the work and purpose of the coming Messiah by declaring, "He will turn the hearts of the children back to the fathers and the hearts of the fathers back to the children."

By definition, prodigal means extravagant, wasteful and improvident. It is a word used by Jesus to describe a man who at a point in his life championed sub-optimal courses and paid dearly for it (Luke 15:11-32). But ever heard of a prodigal father? That must be a worst parent! He is one who cares less about the future and welfare of his own family. He delights in taking away the things meant for the good of his family and squanders it in loose living. He is destructive and wasteful. When he is a leader of his people, he plunders the treasury and makes every effort to die in office. Those who have no hope of dying soon, do well to plant people who will always cover their sins until they die. They always rotate power among their own kinds, holding it indefinitely without giving a hoot about the next generation leaders.

Researchers today agree that it is very important for every child to have his or her father living at home. This is because studies on social development reveal that, children of divorced parents and those born outside of marriage struggle through life at a measurable disadvantage, thereby linking the absence of fathers to most social nightmares - from boys with guns/bombs, to girls with babies.

In traditional families, parents are discouraged from divorce. This goes further to show that God the Creator designed the human family to procreate within the context of a strong, stable union structured to provide the social, psychological, emotional, physical, and spiritual environment for successful development. There are also further evidences to show that there are critical emotional and psychological needs that only a male can provide, just as there are specific needs only the female is designed to meet.

Growing up in a traditional African society, I often hear parents say that their children will be better and even greater than they are. This goes further to show that they put extra effort to solve certain difficult problems for their children before they ever get to solve those problems. They also show them the ways to approach those problems and conquer them for good. A father would practically go through some dangerous areas just to save his children the pains of going through them as the time comes. A good father marks off the dangerous points in his life's journey and points them out to his children to save them from being embarrassed or delayed by them, else he exists for nothing.

Knowledge is good news. The Bible tells us that good news is for sharing (2 Kings 7:9). If as a father I refuse to transfer knowledge to those coming after me, then I am a fool, because the knowledge will surely die with me, not benefiting any one. When a young man or woman lacks the nurturing influence of a true father to give him or her identity, he or she suffers from an identity crisis.

Ideally, children should look and sound like their parents. No one gets identity by simply joining a gang or reading books - identity comes from a FATHER! A man needs to be affirmed by a father in order to confirm his manhood. The only one that can make you understand your manhood is your father. This is why you are better when you live together with your parents. Are your parents seeking for divorce? It's your duty to resist them otherwise, you will pay for it!

The Igbo society is one that carries with it a strong identity. Like the Jewish tradition, family relationships within their genealogy in Igboland, has a very real sense of the "father" spirit. The Jewish ceremony called "bar mitzvah" (or "iwa akwa" in Igbo culture), paints a picture of how a boy is called to age. In this ceremony, a boy goes before the men and performs some prescribed traditional rites, after which the men say to him, "Now, thou art a man" (meaning in Igbo: "I tozuola oke na mmadu" or "I burula nwoke ugbua". This goes to show that from that day forward, that boy takes on a different spirit, for he is now a man. This is why their communities (both Jewish and Igbo) are knitted so closely together and they are so strong in business, tradition, and culture. Being a man qualifies him (the boy) to be delegated by his father as his representative.

Apart from representing his father at certain functions, some hard but necessary duties are assigned to the boy to do as his father watches him from a distance. It is expected of him to make some mistakes and fail in some ways. This helps his father to correct and also direct him properly so that those mistakes will not occur when his father is no longer alive. Children in step families often miss a lot. Though, step families may provide the needed income, yet that advantage is often offset by the emotional rivalries among parents and children in step families.

God, at the earlier stage, told us that He hates divorce, even though He is aware that it can increase an adult's happiness, yet it is devastating to a child. A child in a divorced family often grows up wary of love, marriage, family, and may develop little or no ambition many years after his parents divorced. Divorce destroys the society, as no welfare reform can cut poverty as thorough as a two-parent family.

The concept of a prodigal father emerges as a result of the societal evils going on today. There are societies today where both religion and tradition allows a man to take up as many wives as he likes. He is also permitted by law to "divorce" any of the wives at slight provocations. As a result, dogs in human clothing, in order to satisfy their sexual urges, lure innocent unsuspecting girls to their homes in the name of marriage, only to get them divorced in no distant time. This is responsible for the littering of our streets today with "fatherless" children who by society's standard are regarded "unwanted" hence they only graduate into rapists, armed robbers, militants - carrying guns and bombs, etc. Some of them who make the lists of their countries' armed forces recruitment exercises, go there only to achieve their own selfish ambitions, using government machinery to terrorize others. What else do you expect of someone who grew up in the streets? Responsible children grow up in homes. Streets are only meant for rascals and criminals to grow in.

When parents become prodigal, they lose everything they inherited as parents - they lose their senses of responsibility, and feel unaccountable to anyone. Today, the whole world is in crisis because parents failed in their duties of building up their homes. The solution to this ugly situation will however, be far from us if we continue to neglect the importance of the home. Today's parents are busy working for money - in government and in other institutions. Mothers have abandoned the homes for office work and political appointments. Fathers on their side are no longer fathers but irresponsible beings who are only interested in sleeping around with women of easy virtues at an agreed sum. This generation is truly in trouble, until God saves us!

The problem will linger with no solution in sight, if we continue to allow parents to pursue nothing but pleasure and other material things, leaving the children to learn from strangers. In Psalm 82:5, David, the great king of Israel, addressed this very issue by divine inspiration, when he spoke of the moral and social chaos in his community and described the root cause of mankind's confusion, frustration, and self-destruction as follows: "They know nothing, they understand nothing. They walk about in darkness; all the foundations of the earth are shaken."

The foundation of every society is the family. When the family is in jeopardy, the whole earth boils. There will always be problems until we come to terms with the principles, purpose, nature and precepts of the Almighty God. King David told us that we know nothing; that there is a misunderstanding or misconception of life - showing that we understand nothing and cannot comprehend our environment; and that we walk in darkness, see nothing and are ignorant.

When you lack understanding, you will continually use the wrong formula. The vital keys to reaching the right answer to our problems today are knowledge, wisdom and understanding. First, we must know and understand that the root cause of our problems today is a fatherhood issue. As parents, we have all gone prodigal and are ignorant of God's principles. We have tried in so many ways to solve the challenges of life from a position of ignorance, and this has led us into exasperation, frustration, and failure because we are walking in darkness.

Friends and brethren, how long shall we continue in the dark? Does it not amount to foolishness if we continue to neglect the fundamental principles and laws that regulate function and operation? How long shall we continue in pretense? It still remains a fact that, all life goes off-track and ends in failure, if we continue without knowledge and understanding of the basic, fundamental laws of God. Just like the Jewish and Igbo fathers tell and show their boys what it means to have the identity of a man, it is my duty as a father to also tell you what you should do. Now, pay close attention if you are a prodigal father or a fatherless child looking for identity.

Much as I understand how you feel at it, it is my pleasure to let you know that many years of running up and down looking for a father cannot guarantee you one. Fatherhood is not found in another peer who is also looking for a father, and you cannot discover who you are by looking to someone who doesn't know who he or she is. The truth remains that your identity comes from a father, and the only one that qualifies as your father in GOD (John 1:12). He calls you "My Son", and your identity is in Him, get it!

Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/expert/Vitus_Ejiogu/343380

We have so many irresponsible "fathers" in this generation whose ultimate aim is to overpopulate the world with their kind. When men decide to be MEN, things will work out positively. Being a man does not mean pumping out children from a woman but taking absolute responsibility over them. God help this generation.