Affirming Manhood for Our Sons

 As we look out the large windows of our home, the back yard is alive with activity.  Autumn leaves float to the ground providing an orange carpet for the yard.  Barren trees now make it possible to see the squirrels doing impressive acrobatics from limb to limb.  Gray misty fog rolls in reminding us that Frankenstorm and winter are bearing down upon us.  Inside we sit warm and comfortable around the fireplace enjoying a late Saturday morning breakfast. 

 

Saturday actually began early for Diana and I as we attended a Super Saturday Seminar, and I spoke about the power of ceremony in affirming manhood on our sons.  “How many of you remember your wedding ceremony?”  I asked to start the session. Hands go up.  “Of course you do.  You remember many of the details of your wedding, as you do other important ceremonies in your life like baptism, graduations and award presentations. 

 

“Ceremonies place value upon an event.  They establish it in our memory and empower a life of vision for the future.  This morning I want to capture your imagination with the advantages of a manhood ceremony for your son.” 

 

Why bestow blessing and confer manhood on our boys?  Well to help give them clarity.  We live in a society that is increasingly blurring that clarity.  But then again churches and Christian parents can add to the confusion as well.  When we set our sights on just raising “nice” boys, we deny the internal drive God has created in them for adventure and conquest.  Repelling from Utah’s arches, climbing 14 thousand feet mountains, doing a missions trip in the slums of Africa is not so different then leaving Ur on a quest, having the courage to take Jericho, or challenging a giant with a sling shot.  But in our low risk, comfort driven, be safe approach to parenthood, we can deny them the adventure of manhood. 

 

Boys want to know if they have what it takes to be a man.  As fathers we have been given the opportunity to model and confirm this in their lives.  My dad gave me such a gift when I was 21.  At that time my grandfather’s brother in Pennsylvania was dying of cancer.   I lived with him for the last few weeks of his life bathing, feeding, serving him and was with him in his dying moment.  When I returned home one of the first things dad did was affirm to me, “You have become a man.”  It was a rite of passage statement.  Ceremony provides us with opportunity to capture this same type of moment with our sons.  I’ll share some specifics next journal.