John Simons

Intentionality - Marking the Transition from Childhood

About 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 explained to him the purposes of the ceremony:

1. Mark his transition away from childhood and into young adulthood
2. Define what it means to be a man and encourage him to that goal
3. Chart a course for his becoming a man, including goals for the next year and beyond.
4. Help him identify more closely with the men in his life than he has in the past, to begin the transition toward identifying with them as peers when he is an adult.

I have now begun to lay out the order for the ceremony that we will have this Friday to mark this milestone.

1. Welcome
2. Meal - Josh and I will grill burgers.
3. Marking the Transition - Josh will state that he is ready to leave childhood.
4. Setting the Goal - We will state the definition of what a man is. The men will have a chance to share their advice to him on what it means to be a man.
5. Chart a Course - We will talk about challenges that Josh will face during the next 5 to 10 years until he is fully an adult. Josh and I will talk about challenges that we will undertake in the next 12 months to help him gain faith, confidence and wisdom.

I am excited about this process. I think that he is also looking forward to it.

For the record, I have stolen some of my thoughts from the book, Raising a Modern Day Knight, by Robert Lewis. It has proven to be a great book that is easy to read. I have found it very useful to finally read this as I am working on preparing for this ceremony.

Tags: ceremony, fatherhood, intentionality, maturity, parenthood, son

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