Chivalry, Part 1: Manhood

As a woman, I feel a little awkward addressing the issue of manhood, but I just wanted to share a small portion tonight, since Dan couldn't be here to read the first chapter with me. I'm reading the book, Raising A Modern-Day Knight by Robert Lewis. It's written to dads about not only how to guide their sons into manhood but how to teach their sons what a man is and celebrate their sons' passage into manhood. Just for the record, this book is an excellent guide for dads, but it would be excellent for anyone to read, not just men. There are thousands of single moms who are raising sons all by themselves, and really, we stay at home moms are teaching our sons every single day; we too can get great insight from reading this book.

One passage of Scripture that stands out to me when I think of teaching our sons is Titus 2. Verse 6 starts out with, "Likewise, exhort the young men...." To exhort means to give earnest advice and to admonish. According to Lewis, dads need to teach their sons what a man is and how to become a man. So many times, we just expect them to grow up, learning by example. The book also talks about how, in today's society, with all of the influences and modern thinking (feminism included), boys are growing up being persuaded in all different directions and not really being encouraged towards true masculinity. We, as parents, have to lead by example, but we also have to clearly teach our sons the concept of manhood.

Lewis introduces the concept of knighthood with its chivalrous code in the first chapter. I'll delve deeper into this, as we go on with the series, but I just want to leave you with this quote because it is just so fitting to what I think about when I look at my own sons and consider how to even begin to teach them true chivalry....

What's even more encouraging is to remember that the light of knighthood arose in the suffocating moral darkness and social chaos of the rough-and-tumble Middle Ages. In that sense, knighthood provides for modern dads a model of hope for raising healthy sons with moral and spiritual vision, despite our own increasingly dark and crude culture.

More to come next week....