Bishop T.D. Jakes recently penned Instinct: The Power to Unleash Your Inborn Drive, a new book written to help readers tap into their core: “passions, desires and attractions that fulfill [their] divinely appointed potential.”
Rolling out had the distinct pleasure to interview Bishop Jakes about this offering. During the conversation, we asked him to share words of encouragement for absent fathers and fathers who desire to co-parent and remain a part of their children’s lives following divorce, separations or breakups from their children’s mother(s).
Read what he had to say.
“There is an opportunity to divorce the mother, but not divorce the child. Many times our children catch the brunt of the pain of the failed relationship between their mothers and fathers. They should not be the victim or have to pay the price because you and your spouse, or girlfriend didn’t work things out.
Every child deserves a relationship with his father. Men, don’t be afraid to forge that relationship even if you no longer have the relationship with the mother. The father is so important that he’s not optional. Statistics have proven children who do not have relationships with their father find it difficult to overcome obstacles. It’s certainly not impossible. Our President [Barack Obama] was sired and developed by a single mother.
There are some single mothers who have done amazing jobs. It’s not an indictment against motherhood but it does say that you can be a great mother, but you can’t be a father.
I encourage men to remain a significant part of their children’s lives because it does affect their self-esteem.”
