Randy Hix - The Affirmation Crisis: Healing the Wounds of a Fatherless Generation

E NDORSEMENTS

The Affirmation Crisis exposes the wound of our generationfatherlessness. In his book, Randy offers Gods solution to this wide-spread affliction. From the abundance of his own heart and experience, he shares real solutions to lostness, identity confusion, broken relationships and emotional dysfunction. I know you will be healed and restored in your heart and find identity, forgiveness, and affirmation from Randys words and The Word. I highly recommend this book!

J OHN M ASON ,
AUTHOR OF A N E NEMY C ALLED A VERAGE
AND NUMEROUS OTHER BESTSELLING BOOKS .

You will not find a better book on the topic of spiritual fatherhood than this one!

My friend, Randy Hix, has woven together autobiographical, biblical, theological, and cultural threads which analyze the wounds caused by absent and/or abusive fathers. And more importantly, he presents hope and healing from these wounds! The blessing does overcome the curse!

This volume is encyclopedic in its research. It provides practical guidelines which are life-changing. I predict it will produce stronger families, more effective churches, and cultural transformation.

Use this well-written, easily understood resource for personal growth and for teaching others.

J IM H ODGES
P RESIDENT AND FOUNDER ,
F EDERATION OF M INISTERS AND C HURCHES , I NTERNATIONAL
C EDAR H ILL , T EXAS

This is a fabulous book, well-written with researched facts and references that are impressive. A must-read for parents, teachers, leaders.

D R . D ALE A. R OBBINS
F OUNDER AND PRESIDENT ,
V ICTORIOUS C HRISTIAN M INISTRIES
A UTHOR , PASTOR , TEACHER , AND EVANGELIST FOR OVER THIRTY YEARS
HTTP :// WWW . VICTORIOUS . ORG

This is a wonderful and comprehensive study on what fatherhood IS and on what fatherhood is NOT, and how to overcome and break the cycle and effects of fatherlessness from one generation to the next. The Affirmation Crises is well researched and written from the heart and lives up to its subtitle Healing the Wounds of a Fatherless Generation.

This book should be in the How to section for Parents, and in every Pastors and Family Counselors study. It should be required reading in Bible colleges and Seminaries around the world. I commend Pastor Randy Hix for accepting this Divine Assignment which I know will have a Life Altering Effect on individuals and families, for generations to come.

D AVID A. O BERG
S ENIOR P ASTOR
F AITH A LIVE C HRISTIAN C ENTER
R ENO , N EVADA . USA
S ERVING IN M INISTRY FOR OVER 30 YEARS

T HE A FFIRMATION C RISIS

T HE A FFIRMATION C RISIS

Healing the Wounds of a Fatherless Generation

Randy Hix

2018 Randy Hix

The Affirmation Crisis

Healing the Wounds of a Fatherless Generation

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Scripture quotations marked AMP are from the Amplified Bible. Copyright 1954, 1958, 1962, 1964, 1965, 1987 by The Lockman Foundation. Used by permission. (www.Lockman.org)

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Scripture quotations marked NLT are from the Holy Bible, New Living Translation. 1996, 2004, 2007, 2013, 2015 by Tyndale House Foundation. Used by permission of Tyndale House Publishers, Inc., Carol Stream, Illinois 60188. All rights reserved.

Italics in Scripture have been added by the author for emphasis.

Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data

Library of Congress Control Number: 2018946506

ISBN 978-1-595558251 (Paperback)

ISBN 978-1-595558343 (Hardbound)

ISBN 978-1-595558435 (eBook)

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Please note that footnotes in this ebook may contain hyperlinks to external websites as part of bibliographic citations. These hyperlinks have not been activated by the publisher, who cannot verify the accuracy of these links beyond the date of publication.

D EDICATION

I wish to dedicate this book to my two sons, Scott and Brian. Thank you for loving me despite my shortcomings while you were growing up. Thank you for considering me to be a hero when I was still absent while being present. I am proud of you both and Im excited about the fathers and husbands you have become, and the blessing you will impart to your children, my grandchildren.

Special thanks to Susan Thompson, Foster Wilson, Dale and Jeri Robbins, and Melissa Hix for your editing and input to this project. Thank you, Lord Jesus, for healing my wounded heart and sharing with me the truth of Your Word concerning fatherhood and manhood.

C ONTENTS

ONE

T here is an Affirmation Crisis. It is the result of fatherlessness. Generations have grown up without a father. Whether physically or emotionally absent, it leaves in the child a wound of absence.

The father wound has created broken humans and people who carry an Orphan spirit. Lost-ness, identity confusion, broken relationships, and emotional dysfunction have been some of the results.

But that is not Gods plan. His desire is that you and I be healed and restored in our hearts, to know that we are capable, loved, and confident in who we are.

We live in a time where most men (and boys) are essentially fatherless. Whatever their circumstance, they have no man actually taking them through the many adventures, trials, battles, and experiences they need to shape a masculine heart within them. They find themselves on their own to figure life out, and that is a lonely place to be. Their fears, anger, boredom, and their many addictions all come out of this fatherless place within thema fundamental uncertainty in the core of their being.

J OHN E LDREDGE ,
T HE W AY OF THE W ILD H EART : A M AP FOR THE M ASCULINE J OURNEY

Present but Absent

As a young man of twenty-six, I answered the call of God on my life and entered the ministry. I had spent the previous seven years of marriage pursuing a carrier in music while doing various jobs, including as an interstate truck driver, to make ends meet. My wife Renee and I were just kids when we began our lives together. We were kids having kids. I was eighteen and Renee was seventeen when our first son was born.