Focus on the Family: Fathers Encourage Identity Development

 


Fathers Encourage Identity Development





When fathers choose to serve the Lord, live consistently and seize the opportunity to be present and involved with their children, they encourage identity and teach values.


Fathers encourage identity in the development of their children.

According to psychologist Erik Erikson, childhood development is primarily a process whereby kids gain a sense of personal identity through interaction with other people. The process begins the moment Baby comes home from the hospital, and Dad is one of the earliest and most important players in the drama.

Interaction with other people

Fathers encourage identity development and teach values when they help to shape the hearts and minds of their children. The father’s influence happens by simply engaging with them and being themselves in their presence.

Engagement between father and child could lead to a variety of outcomes, of course. The results depend on who Dad is and how he conducts himself. But one thing’s certain: Dads teach values by being present, caring, and involved as they consciously and intentionally strive to live out their commitments, beliefs, and values in front of their kids.

When a father does his job well, his children will draw upon the strength and goodness of his example for the rest of their lives. This is yet another aspect of a father’s legacy to his children.

The Joshua Code

How does it work? The first and most important step in the process is to make a conscious choice. From the very beginning. A father’s best life-impacting influence occurs when he decides to live by the Joshua Code.

At the end of the Book of Joshua, when the land has been conquered and the people of Israel are on the point of deciding who they are and what they want to do, Joshua presents the nation with this stirring challenge:

Now fear the Lord and serve him with all faithfulness. Throw away the gods your ancestors worshiped beyond the Euphrates River and in Egypt, and serve the Lord. If serving the Lord seems undesirable to you, then choose for yourselves this day whom you will serve, whether the gods your ancestors served beyond the Euphrates or the gods of the Amorites, in whose land you are living. But as for me and my household, we will serve the Lord (Joshua 24:14-15).

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