It’s Father’s Day. I deal with child in need of care cases every day in court. By far, the biggest issue that leads to these cases being filed, as well as juveniles committing criminal offenses, is the lack of fathers in their lives. Sure, meth and opioids are problems, but even these can be attributed to the lack of father figures in these kids’ lives. As to boys, they gravitate toward bad boys and men to fill the gap caused by no fathers in their lives. Moreover, many of these kids have mostly absent dads, and lots of these have either been in prison or jail, or are incarcerated now. The boys in particular still look up to their dads who are awful role models, which explains why they don’t see committing crimes as a big deal—Daddy did it so what’s the problem?
You as a dad have the awesome duty of being a good role model to your children so they will do the same for their children. The number one issue with these bad dads in juvenile court is that they live for themselves and do not think first about their children’s well being, regardless what they say on the record. Don’t be selfish. We have a very short time to raise our children. If we fail in our jobs they and their children will pay the price. You can claim that they must take responsibility for their decisions and how they turn out all you want, but such words mean little when they made their decisions based on the modeling you gave them when they were in your home. Step up to the plate and be good fathers to your children.
“Train up a child in the way he should go; even when he is old he will not depart from it.”
Proverbs 22:6 ESV
Paid for by the Committee to re-elect Judge Kevin Mark Smith 