Contact: WinePress Publishing Group
ENUMCLAW, Wash., June 17 /Christian Newswire/ -- Most of us have bickered with our "significant other" over something that's not our loved one's fault. The argument was likely triggered by something that happened in our past.
The behavior of our parents—particularly our fathers—leaves a lasting imprint on our lives, claims clinical psychologist Kathy Rodriguez, author of "Healing the Father Wound." In order to grow spiritually, she says, "We must address our emotional woundedness and the imprint our fathers have left upon our lives, for better or for worse."
Rodriguez asserts that many people are unable to receive God's love because their earthly fathers have wounded them or have been absent altogether. The results of "fatherlessness" are evident, particularly among the teen population, says Rodriguez: sky-high dropout and teen pregnancy rates, kids killing their peers or themselves in mass school shootings, and kids hurling themselves through cyberspace to escape reality.
Consider the staggering statistics about fatherlessness that Paul Lewis presents in "Five Key Habits of Smart Dads:"
- Fatherless daughters are 92 percent more likely to fail in their own marriages.
- Seventy percent of all young men incarcerated in the U.S. come from fatherless homes.
- Principals across the nation report aggressive, acting out behavior, especially from boys who come from single-parent homes.
"Approximately 94 percent of us come from some type of dysfunctional family background," says Rodriguez. "When we work off of these distorted parental images and our own woundedness, we often find it difficult to accept God's parenting."
Her goal is to help people recover the ability to be parented by their Heavenly Father. "'Healing the Father Wound' is an integrated approach to healing emotional woundedness in Christians who have less-than-perfect childhoods," says Rodriguez. "The book provides a systematic healing process for individuals and small groups to address their emotional woundedness and welcome Father God home to their hearts."
Rodriguez helps her readers identify four types of inadequate fathering and the legacy each produces, understand how a "father wound" impacts significant intimate relationships, recognize the characteristics of a good dad, and learn how to re-parent and forgive.
