The Idea (cont)

For those of you that are wondering about this blog and the way it's formatted I'm trying to catch you up to speed. It's gonna take me several sessions to get you online with where we currently are.

Once again we've discussed why I'm doing this and the desired effect that I hope to achieve. Until reading Dr Poythress's paper entitled, "How I Have Helped My Boys to Become Christian Men", I was on the road to nothing more than an "Extreme Camping" trip. Something that would be fun but would be empty spiritually and lacking on the cerebral level. Not what I want for my sons. For those that know me and have been camping and hiking with me understand that extreme, or extremely stupid seem to be synonymous with some of our adventures. Anyway the Doc as I'll call him had outlined some biblical requirements that his son would have to achieve. This is great, more ammunition to make this a true experience for my children. Other resources that I had researched were Dr Voddie Baucham's study on "Biblical Manhood", this is an 8 part message that can be found on Youtube.com. 8 PARTS!! I assure you they are short, 7 to 9 minutes each. What an incredible message that is biblically on the mark.

Let me hop on my soap box for just a minute. I've read that one of our biggest problems in the Christian faith today within our families is the inability for our children to explain their faith. We take them to church, to Sunday school, we pray around the dinner table saying grace (assuming your not too busy watching TV) and remind our children to say their prayers before going to bed. We assume that our kids are going to pick up our faith by osmosis. Are we stupid?? Believe me until a couple of years ago I was just as guilty. We don't take the time to mentor our children, it's no wonder that when our boys graduate high school and leave the house that they identify themselves as Christians even though we don't see the fruits of the spirit from them. They feel they've inherited their faith!! Their fathers never challenged them on their beliefs or explained why they believe what they believe. It's like politics, "My daddy voted Republican or Democrat so I'll just do the same".

OK I'm off the box.

So now you can see the evolution of this idea goes from a great experience within the rite of passage to more of a combined measure of both a head and a heart knowledge of the beliefs that I'm trying to instill within my sons, the natural and physical part is just icing on the cake, a time for male bonding.

I hope you guys are as excited about this as I am, I believe that small steps like this being deeply rooted within our faith can bust our shallow culture and help us become and likewise raise men of God that will impact this world for Christ!