The Father Connection

10 Qualities of the Heart
That Empower Your Children
to Make Right Choices

By Josh McDowell
Broadman & Holman, $11.99

ISBN 0805460942


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Transform your kids,
be a father to them

Josh McDowell has had some bad experiences in the realm of fathering. In The Father Connection he tells about his own father's drinking problem and his abuse of McDowell's mother. Later when McDowell held his own firstborn child in his arms, he was terrified.

Nonetheless in The Father Connection, McDowell proclaims that regardless of his limitations, any man can become an effective father because he has the ultimate model of fatherhood in God. McDowell is concerned about the large number of emotionally or physically absent fathers in today's homes contributing to problems in the health, education, financial welfare, and morals of children.

However, the author does not dwell on the negative. He quickly moves on to challenge fathers to look at their role as a series of small steps taken over a lifetime and to dedicate themselves to the privilege and responsibility of being a father. You will soon understand that the "Father Connection" works two ways: between you and your child and between you and God the Father.

The meat of this book is the chapters on the ten qualities that will help men become the kind of father they want to be and that their children need. These are not surprising qualities -- unconditional love, purity, truth, discipline, respect, etc., but McDowell is full of practical, commonsense advice. In a chapter on "The Father as Friend," he suggests such things as asking open-ended questions, cultivating mutual interest, and getting to know your children's friends.

Each chapter has a page "For Reflection, Discussion, and Action" at the end, and the book would be a good group discussion guide for men. Several pages at the back list "Fun Things Dads Can Do with Their Kids." McDowell heads up the nationwide Right From Wrong campaign, and is a traveling representative for Campus Crusade for Christ.

Do You Make the "Father Connection"?

In The Father Connection, Josh McDowell shows that a successful father's relationship with his family is based on Jesus' example:
These qualities will help you become the kind of father you want to be, the kind of father your children need, the kind of father God calls you to be. In claiming them you'll discover a whole new source of energy and insight into fatherhood, one that puts your role and responsibilities into perspective in a fresh, new way.

-- From Home & Christian Life, Winter 1997

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