Chivalry, Part 4: Turn in the Road

I read part of chapter four tonight in Raising a Modern-Day Knight. This book is really good, and I'm gleaning a lot of wisdom from it, but I feel a little uncomfortable addressing a book that is speaking pretty much, directly to men, fathers in particular. So, I've decided to take a turn in the road and not so much tell you everything Lewis says in the book, but I'm going to give you more of my perspective as a mother....I'll still be sharing things I read, but I want to make this more of a topic for us as women, in my own style.:) Yes, it's still an issue for fathers, a very important issue, but as mothers, I really believe we play a huge role in who our sons will grow up to be as well.

Tonight as I was reading, I noticed something that I think I disagree with, but I'm not totally certain yet. I still have to delve into the book a little deeper. The author talked about how in certain countries they have ceremonies for a boy to become a man, some of these ceremonies quite traumatizing for a young boy....and that is their culture; it is what they are used to. Here, we don't have these ceremonies; in America, we really don't have any one certain rite of passage for a boy to become a man. He talks as if we need these rites of passage, so that boys can know that they are men.....I'm not so sure I agree with this. Just because a boy goes through a certain ceremony, does not make that boy a man. It does not bring him to that certain level of maturity that marks his passing over into manhood. Just from my perspective, only time and experience will bring maturity, thus leading to manhood.

One topic I did gain a lot of insight from, though, is the fact that there are two pictures of manhood in the Bible, two characters we can look back to, Adam and Jesus. Let me just focus on Jesus right now. As mothers, what better thing can we do, than to teach our children Who Jesus is? What better person can we focus on teaching our children about, than Jesus? Jesus gave up all and came to earth as a man, and He gave His all for us. He went through every single part of growing up that our boys will go through. What better picture of manhood can we give to our children, than our wonderful Saviour? Who better to point our boys to as they experience life, than the One Who loves them more than they could ever comprehend? As mothers, we have the opportunity to show Jesus to our children every day, not just in the stories we share and the words we say, but through every action and every reaction. I'll be the first to admit, not every action and reaction of mine is always a picture of what Jesus would do. This really gave me conviction as I read tonight....in Jesus lies every answer I could possibly need in raising these boys to be chivalrous men....ponder it for a bit.

Leave a comment; share your thoughts....