A friend of mine confided to me that her 16 year old son declared to his father that he was sick of being treated like a child!
The teen insisted that, from now on, his Dad would treat him as a man.
The father agreed. From now on, his son would be treated as a peer, not as a child.
Tuesday night, the teen headed out the door to shoot some hoops. His Dad said, “Tonight is the men’s meeting; you are a man, right?”
The teen nodded and asked what they would be doing. Dad responded, “We’ll fellowship, have some snacks, pray for each other and have a Bible study. If there’s any time left, we’ll shoot some hoops in the gym.”
Friday night, the man and his son got up at 2 a.m. to accompany their Pastor to the hospital to sit with a young man whose mother was dying. As the saintly mother slipped away to Jesus, the teen watched his Dad and the Pastor comforting the grieving young man with scripture and prayer.
For a month Dad and his teen aged son did ‘man things.’ They cleaned out the gutters on an elderly couple’s house, they went to prayer meetings, men’s meetings and at night, they read the Bible together and prayed for their family.
At the end of the month, the Dad asked the boy if he liked being a man. The teen replied it wasn’t what he thought it was. His Dad smiled and said, “I know.”
Ephesians 6:4 Fathers, do not exasperate your children; instead, bring them up in the training and instruction of the Lord.
Prayer: Father, help me to care for my children with the same attitude you care for me. Show me how to teach through leadership as well as instruction, help me to represent life as a Godly Father. Amen