Intentionality - Raising a Godly Man
My son will be a teenager in less than a month. I have been working for the last couple of years to figure out how to grow him into a man. I am still trying to figure out rites of passage.
Spiritual Development
One that I am working on putting on the calendar is for his 13th birthday. We are planning a dinner for shortly before my son’s birthday. I will invite most of the guys from church to join us for the dinner, as well as a couple of other Christian men. The purpose of this dinner is to recognize the milestone of him becoming a teenager, and to instruct him on how to become a man. Each of the men will have the opportunity to give advice and wisdom to my son for the next few years. My hope is that they will repeat some of the things that I have been saying, and maybe a few things that I have not thought of. We will repeat this a couple of times, maybe at 16 and 18.
We have joked about some other rites of passage at this stage, such as leaving him in the middle of nowhere and letting him find his way back, but I think that will wait. However, I just read a post by a pastor who is trying to be intentional about how he raises his son. (HT: Eric Taylor) Mark Batterson, a pastor in DC has made an agreement to take on a physical challenge, a intellectual challenge and a spiritual challenge in the next year. It sounds like a great idea.
Preparation for Dating
One of the things that my son needs to learn is how to treat girls/women. I have been working for a while on getting him to treat his mom with proper respect. The other night, he and I took his youngest sister (7 years old) out on a date. He had to open the car door, and hold the door at the restaurant. It was a good first start. I need to spend some time with him explaining the importance of what we talked about, as well as some of the rules that he will have to follow.
Commitment to Christ
One of the things that encourages me about my son is that he is happy to be active in our church. He accepted Christ several years ago. He still needs to grow in his understanding of faith. He likes have a role of responsibility in our church. (He is our primary sound man.) He asks to go to a local youth group. (He is our church’s only student in middle school or high school.) He is excited about the missions trip that we are going on in several months.
I need to keep looking for ways to encourage his young faith and continue his growth toward manhood.
[...] a week and a half ago, I posted about my plans to help bring my son from childhood to manhood. Tonight, we talked about the ceremony together. I [...]