...race car driving...
...or you may find Buzz pounding nails.
It's not uncommon to have Lightening McQueen and Mater as dinner guests...
...or Thomas and Friends as bed mates.
Spare Nerf bullets can be found about anywhere...like the kitchen counter...
...or maybe in your light fixture. Okay, to be fair...I think this one was my handy work. Oops. And the guns that house those bullets can be found anywhere, too.
Behind the couch for example. Ever so strategically placed in case an intruder comes into the living room...or your little brother tries to play with your most favorite construction truck. Yeah, how's a bullet to the face for touching that bulldozer? Brother won't let you play with his toys, huh? No worries, because anything can be made into a gun...anything.
That includes hockey sticks...Legos...banana shaped puzzle pieces...fingers...whatever. So be careful where you stand, because you might get blasted with a broom stick...or shrunk with a shrink ray...
...or hit in the face with a helicopter or any other object doing a gazillion miles an hour.
Yup. Never a dull moment around here. All rough and tumble, boogers and farts...not much drama except for that provided by the almost 5-year-old if he can't find his foam sword or some obscure Matchbox car we haven't seen in two years. That's about as girly as we get...oh, and his favorite color is pink. Herein lies some of the problem... Not the pink part. The lack of girly part. Don't worry...I'll get there.
They say boys are harder when they're little. That when they get older they're a breeze. I bought into this philosophy and through many of their temper tantrums I reassured myself - t's only for a few years, it's only for a few years. Well that may be true for the tantrums, but I think it was a mistake to have this mentality...almost like I can check out as a parent when they reach X number of years. Gregg and I have already made some mistakes on the intentionality part of parenting. We're already having to play catch-up. I don't want that to continue to happen, especially during the part of their lives when they are becoming men and getting ready to be husbands and daddies.
They say they're easier, but... How do we teach our boys to become men of God in the world we live in today? How do we teach them to not buy into the philosophies of this world or their solutions to the problem? How do we teach them to value women and treat them as beautiful because of who they are, when our culture does the exact opposite? How do we teach them to be a leader, but not the kind society seems to value...the domineering kind? To be a servant leader who will love their wives and teach their children. And to do all this in a home where there's not a whole lot of girly influence...remember, I'm not a girly-girl. After all how are they supposed to know how to treat a lady when they don't really know what one looks like? When I let myself think about it too long, I start to get anxious...fearful. I just want Jesus to come back today!
And then I realize...there's my answer. How can I even think I can do anything good or like it's supposed to be done if I'm not seeking Him first. Only by His grace can we even attempt to tackle the huge responsibility that is parenting boys. Only by looking to Him first and asking for His forgiveness for the mistakes we've already made and His wisdom to not make them again, can we hope to accomplish what He's set before us. I need to be on my knees daily for this...in His Word daily for this...I need to be totally dependent on Him for this. I love these boys with all my heart, I can't even begin to express really how much. I want what's best for them and I'm willing to do what it takes to get them there....and that takes constant fixation on Him.
You have made a father cry.
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