Raising a Boy to Be a ManSample

The Beginning of Wisdom

My wife endured almost 25 hours of labor to deliver our daughter. So when she went into labor with our second child, we thought we had plenty of time. We were wrong. A mere 30 minutes after making it through the hospital doors, I was holding my son. I had been a father for two years, but this felt different. I felt like I needed more time to prepare. I was now responsible for raising a boy to be a man, and I barely felt like a man myself.

Looking at the innocent bundle in my arms, I could see my every fault, shortcoming, and sin reflected back at me. Areas of my life I had long chosen to ignore hovered like clouds over my son, waiting to descend and contaminate his purity. I needed help.

My son’s birth set me on a quest to become the man God intended for me to be so that I might somehow guide my son to the same end. I’ve made plenty of mistakes along the way, but as I reflect on the last 20 years as his father, these are the lessons I have tried to teach.

Maybe you just found out you were going to have a son, or maybe you’ve been at it for a few years already. Either way, if you’re trying to raise a boy to be a man, the first lesson I realized my son needed to learn was a healthy fear of the Lord. God is perfect, all-powerful, all-knowing, and omnipresent. The only appropriate posture in the face of such power is reverence, submission, and, yes, fear.

To help my son understand this, we watched thunderstorms, felt the power of ocean waves, and looked at stars through a telescope and cells through a microscope. We marveled at creation and how big God must be. Then, I showed my son God’s power wasn’t limited to nature. I told stories of God working in my life to answer prayers, both big and small. Through it all, he learned God was not only powerful, but also good.

What do you think about when you think of God’s power? What can you do to help your son develop a healthy fear of the Lord? It really is the beginning of wisdom.