Now certainly, not all fathers are really good at being a very significant influence on their children’s lives—and for all those today who feel deep emotional wounds as they think about their own dads, we can pray that our highest father figure of all, who is the Lord, will continue to touch and gradually heal those wounds in the eternal Love that God is.

But there are many millions of good fathers on Earth whose role and relationship with their children deserves high praise and recognition. Some of the very good changes in today’s generations of fathers show us that men having children nowadays play a more active role in parenting than they did long ago. Fathers today do not just play the role of provider, protector and disciplinarian in the family. Today, the role of fathers has evolved greatly, which means that many fathers today take on a whole new load of new skills and values.