Singer and songwriter Michael W. Smith shared an important message about the growing need for Christian men to take on the role of mentorship for children who are fatherless.
“We need a lot of surrogate dads,” Smith told The Christian Post. “We have thousands of young men who need mentors, and I don’t think that’s the government’s job. I think it’s the Church’s job to mentor.”
He added, “It’s a crisis that we need to wake up to, realize that we’ve got to be a part of the solution, and we have the tools to be a solution and help. Let the Church rise up, and I’m pointing the finger right at me too.”
The 63-year-old explained that the absence of a father figure can be devastating to a child. Some develop an addiction to drugs and alcohol while others become a risk for suicide.
The matter is so meaningful to Smith, who is the father of five and the grandfather of 16 because his own father taught him about God’s endless love which had a tremendous impact on his life.
“My dad taught me what God is like on a lot of levels,” the singer said of his father, Paul Smith who died in 2015. “He was there for me my whole life. He loved me. He had so many attributes of God, and his glass was always half full. He was upbeat, he smiled and laughed every day. He fed the homeless, and he loved my mom well.”
Smith honored his father’s legacy in his new book, The Way of the Father: Lessons from My Dad, Truths about God, where he reflects on the profound effects that his father had on every area of his life.
Each chapter reveals a quality about his father that came out of living an obedient life to Jesus Christ including loving others unconditionally, persevering when there’s pain, displayed a righteous behavior, inspiring younger generations, and finding our identity in the Holy Spirit.
During the interview with CP, Smith commented that some people “struggle with being friends with God,” adding that “They can’t quite grasp that He actually sings over you, and He dances over you. In all these promises of God, how He wants to just father you.”
The singer said those who grew up with an abusive father tend to not “want anything to do with” the idea of loving God as their Father because of their past experiences.
“When you understand the Father’s heart of God, and knowing how much He loves you, what do you do? You just respond to it. And when you respond to it, you walk in obedience, and you want to do the right thing,” Smith noted. “You just want to please God. You go, ‘God, what can I do to further Your Kingdom? Because of what you’ve done for me.’ You just want to love Him back.”
“When you see travesty and you see people doing crazy things, they don’t know the Father,” he added. “But they can know the Father. I’ve seen evil like you’ve never seen it, and I’ve seen those people turn their hearts to Jesus. So there’s hope for everybody.”
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