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Training our Sons to be Citizens

Culture, Fall 2016, Valor ParentsSeptember 30, 201628Views0Likes0Comments
As we near the end of a very turbulent election cycle we have important decisions to make. The right to vote is the right to choose to whom we will hand the reigns of significant power; a power that impacts real people. How do we prepare our sons for the great responsibilities of voting and of citizenship in general? Human beings live in community. God designed us this way and cares about how we choose to live within our communities. As a means of helping us live together God also gave us institutions that bear real authority. Scripture identifies three of these institutions: Family, Church, and Civil Government. Because God designed these institutions for our good, it should not surprise us that the Bible has plenty to say about them and ample instructions about the tasks that they are to do and not to do. To equip our sons to be God honoring members and leaders in all three of these institutions we need to seek to immerse them in all that scripture teaches about these spheres of authority so that they will know how to help promote righteousness at home, at church, and at the ballot box. But as the election looms in front of us how should we be teaching our sons about their role as a Christian citizen?

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Just a Little Peace!

Fall 2016, Parenting, Valor ParentsSeptember 30, 201628Views0Likes0Comments
It was two decades ago, but I vividly remember the week my husband “surprised” me, his very pregnant wife, with an untrained, chewing, whining, fence jumping,  five-month old puppy.  It had been a rough few days when I finally reached my limit.  The whining from our unhappy pup had driven this hormonal mother of 2 toddlers to the brink of a mental breakdown and when our three-year-old Kevin began playing the drums by banging a pot with a wooden spoon and son number two began "singing" loudly at the top of his lungs, the noise became unbearable. Blessedly, with the racket of singing and drumming I knew I could keep an audible "eye" on the boys.   I had to use the restroom and thought “Good, I'll just go into the bathroom, sit on the toilet, take a sanity break, and enjoy a bit of ‘quiet’ for a minute". This was overly-optimistic.

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Building a Boy Backwards Part 1

Fall 2016, Parenting, Valor ParentsSeptember 30, 201630Views0Likes2Comments

Feature Art By Brian Marshall Jr.

When I was in high school my parents decided to build a house. They thought carefully about what they wanted the home to look like as a finished product then worked backwards to determine how much square footage would be required for each room, what utilities would be needed, and the type of materials that would be used. Before they ever started the house, they had detailed plans on what the foundation would look like and how sturdy it would need to be to support everything that they wanted in the finished product. Parenting our boys is an even bigger project with even bigger surprises, joys … and discouragements, so I want to encourage you with a building principle that helped my wife and me with the parenting of our boys: build backwards. Like my parents did when building their home, cast a vision for your boy when he is twenty-years-old and then work backwards to help direct your efforts and focus your limited energy. This may seem daunting or even scary. It’s hard enough sometimes to picture what your five year old should be like right now let alone when he’s twenty but I have good news. God’s not asking you to craft your own vision, He’s already provided it.

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The Book that Bites

Fall 2016, Transformed Lives, Valor ParentsSeptember 30, 201627Views0Likes0Comments
Remember choose your own adventure books? I loved them as a kid. When I read them I felt like I was an active participant rather than a passive observer. The Bible is supposed to be like this. When we sit down to read, we are placing on our lap a living book that bites back. But the Bible is powerfully “relevant” not because we are in charge but because God wields the words that confront us like a master surgeon wields a scalpel. Forgetting this is dangerous. And a few months ago I forgot. I sat down on the couch that morning, grabbed my phone, and clicked on my Bible app. I rolled my eyes internally when 1 Corinthians 13 popped up. 1 Corinthians 13 is that passage we all tune out at weddings because we’ve heard it over and over again. We’ve turned it into a cliché. “Love is patient, love is kind …” And like the nagging repetition of a parent droning on, I was not interested in hearing the same old things again. I was about to look for another passage to read when the Spirit pricked my conscience.

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