Growing Godly Men {Link-up Day!}

By on June 30, 2011 in growing godly men

Today’s the day!

Let’s all benefit from each other and share our struggles and insights about raising godly men. If you have a post on that subject please link it up below. It can be a recent post, or a (not so) recent post. No restrictions except that it be based on the Truth of the Word and be specifically about your attempts to raise godly men. Be sure to share as much of the title in your link name as possible so that other moms can look for what they need.

(Looking for a great resource on raising godly men? We recommend Plants Grown Up, by Doorposts.) Link up!



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when boys are just too much

By on June 28, 2011 in the heart, Uncategorized

Sometimes…

* I feel the judgement

* I sense the displeasure

* I hear the snickers

* I see the frowns

* I smell the discontent

and I feel the weight of this one thought…

My boys are just too much


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The feeling creeps in time and again. Usually I know it’s coming, sometimes it catches me off guard. At the birthday party for one of our friends it hits full-force, this feeling that others are looking at us wondering why our boys are so rowdy. Why they’re so loud and rough. Why they play so hard, act without thinking. Why we have such a hard time getting them to obey.  Like the poster-child for the well-behaved homeschooling family gone terribly wrong.

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My boys are hard.  Sometimes, I’m tempted to think that they’re harder than other boys.  That they’re just too much.  I’ve agreed with it in my heart … this thought that they’re wild, difficult to handle, misfits. And certainly if their own mama looks at them that way, talks about them that way, others will too.

Shame on me.

I’m not an experienced mom. I don’t have all the answers, and I don’t know for a fact that the method of shepherding my husband and I are clinging to will produce fruit in the hearts of our sons in the end.  But we believe that aiming for their hearts has a better chance of producing fruit than methods that only serve to clean the outside of the cup.

I could bribe them into behaving. Make promises of treats and toys and shiny things to woo them into what amounts to pharisaical behaviorism.

I could pay them to obey. Make promises of money in return for kindness and teach them that they should get paid to be good.

I could teach them to be kind and share. But how is that different from what unbelievers teach their sons?

I’m looking at the process of sanctification, and sanctification takes time.

Waiting on the Lord, keeping the faith, and hoping in the things we can’t see, is what separates us as Christians. But it’s also what makes our faith the most difficult.  The pressure to conform to the world’s standards for child-rearing can be fierce. But I believe that God sees us, that He knows our hearts, and that He will allow us to see fruit.

 

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I would have lost heart, unless I had believed that I would see the goodness of the Lord in the land of the living. Wait on the Lord; Be of good courage, and He shall strengthen your heart; Wait, I say, on the Lord. (Psalm 27:13, NKJ)

Where does your heart need to be strengthened today?

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Tackling “the talk”- Protecting the heart

By on June 28, 2011 in Uncategorized

Guard your heart above all else, for it determines the course of your life. ~Proverbs 4:23

Jake went from “in a relationship” to “single”

Oh, Facebook, how I loathe thee. {actually, it is a love/loathe relationship}

I see these status changes on the pages of my boy’s friends all too frequently {sometimes several times a day for the same person, and I kid you not!}

It is one of the myriad of reasons my younger sons {ages 15 and 13} are not permitted to be “in a relationship” with anyone {learned that the hard way}.

God designed the relationship between a man and a woman to be a life long commitment.  In our home, we do not believe that the culture of serial dating reflects God’s plan for marriage and sex.

But, the world flaunts a different way.  You only need walk the halls of a local high school {or middle school, for that matter} to observe the world’s way. Holding hands, exchanging “I love you’s”, competing for the attention of the opposite sex~ it has become the norm.

How do we think this is preparing our children for the sanctity of marriage?  How can they save their heart for the one God has purposed for them if they give up pieces of their heart along the way?

When we tackle this part of the talk with our boys, we provide three ways to guard their heart.

  • Put God first. When our boys are walking in the path God has created for them and have cultivated a personal relationship with their Creator, they will be able to see the way out of temptation {I Corinthians 10:13}
  • Put popularity in context.  Knowing who they are in Christ is crucial for our sons in order to resist the temptations of the world.  When our boys accept Christ into their heart, they are a new creation. {II Corinthians 5:17} Their citizenship is not of this world and they need to be reminded of that {Philippians 3:20}.  There is so much outside pressure to do the “popular” thing, our sons need us to remind them what the right thing is.
  • Pace yourself.  Sometimes, it seems kids are in a hurry to grow up.  The part of the male brain responsible for judgment and impulse control {the pre frontal cortex} is not fully developed until our sons are between 22-25 years old.  From a young age, we need to be setting boundaries for what is appropriate when it comes to opposite sex relationships.  Help them understand the benefit of not rushing into emotional intimacy.  Help them make good choices until they are ready to make them on their own.

 

The condition of our sons hearts determines the course of their life.  Are we, as parents, taking the protection of their heart seriously enough?

 

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Covering

By on June 27, 2011 in Prayer

Years ago, some friends of ours were chosen to be on a leadership team at our church. They asked us to be a part of their prayer covering as they entered this new role – praying daily for their family, their marriage, guidance, spiritual growth and protection. We were blessed to pray for them on a daily basis as part of their “shield.”

Fast forward several years, as I’m reading Day of War, and that time spent as someone else’s prayer covering came back to my memory as I read about David.

We often pray for our boys’ salvation, obedience, future and so on, and turn to others to pray for our families in times of crisis.

But what about prayers for protection?

In Day of War, as they are about to enter battle each and every time, David prays “Cover me in this day of war!”

And we are in a war. All the time. It is spiritual and it is dangerous. It gets even more dangerous as we purpose to raise strong, godly men who will further the Kingdom.

Satan hates that.

So we ask for covering.

Find another mom and be prayer warriors for each other’s family. Cover them in prayers for the Lord’s protection in the day-to-day battles, both seen and unseen.

Finally, be strong in the Lord and in his mighty power.  Put on the full armor of God, so that you can take your stand against the devil’s schemes.  For our struggle is not against flesh and blood, but against the rulers, against the authorities, against the powers of this dark world and against the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly realms.  Therefore put on the full armor of God, so that when the day of evil comes, you may be able to stand your ground, and after you have done everything, to stand. ~Ephesians 6:10-13

Pray for this armor of God to cover each person in their family and your own…

Stand firm then, with the belt of truth buckled around your waist, with the breastplate of righteousness in place,  and with your feet fitted with the readiness that comes from the gospel of peace.  In addition to all this, take up the shield of faith, with which you can extinguish all the flaming arrows of the evil one.  Take the helmet of salvation and the sword of the Spirit, which is the word of God. ~Ephesians 6:14-17

The Lord calls us to pray for each other in this manner…

And pray in the Spirit on all occasions with all kinds of prayers and requests. With this in mind, be alert and always keep on praying for all the Lord’s people. ~Ephesians 6:18

Raising a generation of godly men will not happen without a fight, nor will it happen without the prayers of His people and His divine protection.

*****

Do you have a prayer shield praying for your family?

Will you be a prayer warrior for another boy mom as she raises her boys to serve the Lord?

*****

Have you been looking for great fiction for your older sons and husbands to read?

We are so excited to share more with you about Day of War, a new book out by author Cliff Graham, based on the lives of David and his mighty men…

The Lion of War novel series is the story of the Mighty Men – a disgruntled army of mercenaries and outcasts forged into an elite fighting force by a young warlord named David.

Stay tuned for more on this incredible book, the first in the Lion of War series, in the coming months!

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