This weekend the
long-anticipated celebration to manhood took place. It was such a great weekend!
Did you know
that the word ‘teenager’ was created at the turn of the last century and didn’t
gain popularity until the ‘50’s with James Dean and Rebel without a Cause,
Crybaby and later Grease. It came with the popularity of the automobile as it
grew more affordable and the young adult crowd was granted more freedom to run
wild. With it came an attitude that they are just teenagers they are gonna be
rebellious and act out and be clueless.
Well…I
disagree. I realize that as my young man grows in his walk with the Lord and as
he makes it more personal that there will be trials and obstacles, poor choices
and many, many growing opportunities. But I don’t plan to use the phrase “well,
he’s just a teenager, of course he’s dumb”. I have poured into my son for the
last 13 years, giving him quite the foundation to jump from. If he makes poor choices,
there will be consequences. We have also worked hard to teach him that he is
his own human, with his own sin who will stand before a Holy God one day. His
choices are his responsibility. When he stands before the Lord (when any of us
stand before the Lord) He will not ask about so and so, we will each give an
account of the choices that we chose.
Not so long
ago I sat with my son and asked him who he wants to become? Who he wants to be
as he grows into the man God has called him to be? He came up with 5-character
traits that he wants to possess both now and later. I had a friend turn those
into a plaque and handed it to him at the party and had him read it out loud. Then
my dad handed him a Damascus Sword. The Bible calls it the Sword of the Spirit,
which is the Word of God (Eph 6:17). Hubby called all the men to lay hands on my
son and they prayed over him. Later he asked if he could open the cards and
proceeded to read each card and after each one, he would seek out the giver and
give them a personal thank you. My dad watched the entire scene and then said
to E: that is not what a child or a young man would do, that is what a man
would do.
I am so honored
to get to be part of this amazing community that the Lord has just plopped us
into. So many awesome people in our home, gathering around us and standing in
to sharpen my son as he takes the next steps of his journey. So very honored to
be part of a church where the children’s, youth and head pastor all came and
participated.
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