Raising “Faith” Action Heroes

Boys are Doers  

“But be doers of the word, and not hearers only”

 James 1:22 

courtesy of thoughtsonparenting.com

Being a mother comes with its share of responsibility. Being a mother of boys has come with its share of unique responsibilities that never crossed my mind until my older son started growing up. I went nuts trying to figure out how we were going to instill all the qualities that make up good character. How would we do this before he hit eighteen?

When I was pregnant with my first child (Rockford) I worried about how feeding him would go, his sleeping pattern, and if I would be able to hear him when he cried at night. Never did I realize these were things that would come somewhat natural to me and they would be the “easy things” to sweat. Today, some things have changed. I still worry (don’t get me wrong I’m still a mom), but I worry about the type of man he will become and how what I do or not do will affect that. What am I doing today to equip him for his future?

I have usually relied on my faithful resources, the Bible, my Christian community, and if I am being honest, the Montessori Method.  All three have shaped my way of thinking, living, learning and training up my children.  I am an avid listener of KPRZ radio station, a Christian community broadcast. One of my favorite broadcasts is Focus on the Family.

On one of their broadcasts they had a lady by the name of Jean Blackmer that talked about her experience with raising her boys. One thing that quickly jumped out at me was the same thing that has been resonating with me since I heard this, “When teaching them [boys] faith, put ‘faith in action'”. She gave an example of having her sons go down to a distressed region where the boys helped build houses for the poor. The boys loved “doing” this and were so blessed and excited about it as she heard them talking about their positive experience when they returned home.  That’s it! I thought, boys are doers! “Our little sons exemplify this for us everyday, they want to “do” not just read or hear about it,” said the interviewer.  I can hear my son saying, “I can do it! I can do it!” as I am listening to these ladies talk about what I am quickly becoming familiar with.

Generally speaking, girls are more incline to want to read about experiences and or hear about them, in detail please. Boys are different in that sense. Let me illustrate. My husband (a high school teacher) comes home from work and I ask how his day was and he replies, “good.” A whole eight hours and all he says is good? I give him my endless list of every quirky, funny, annoying, stressful, heartfelt, thought-provoking experience I had in those same eight hours. I give sufficient detail to him as I would want to hear it.  The problem is, he doesn’t want to hear it. He gives it to me like he expects it in return.  I also recall how my husband hates whenever he is asked to hold hands when praying in a group. “What’s the big deal,” I ask. He replies, “Your not a guy, girls want to hold hands and have a special moment, guys are just thinking how we hope not to get stuck holding another guy’s hand.”  I get it, guys just want to pray and get the show on the road, we women on the other hand, want to feel more connected to one another. So the story goes with the endless differences of boys and girls.  This is why I knew I had to “up” my character building training with my sons in a way that they can better relate and enjoy.

I have made some changes to our daily schedule. In addition to reading and hearing about Jesus’s character, I started us in ministry serving opportunities. Last Tuesday we visited a nearby convalescent home for a couple of hours. I told my son that we were going to visit old people who live in a building and don’t get many visits through the year and how we were going to reach out to them and show kindness and love like Jesus showed kindness and love to the meek.  He was so excited about this he kept asking me, “When are we gonna visit the old people?” 

We entered a recreation room where they were celebrating every March birthday. They were serving cake and ice cream and Rockford had both. An hour or so later, I am talking to a gentleman next to me holding Rocco and turn to see Rockford and I see the most beautiful thing…he was showing his love language. I saw him handing each of them a Cars figure. saying, “here, you can be this one,” as he handed them a car. I know how much those cars mean to him and that he says so much with them as I wrote about in Rockford’s Love Language…Cars. I knew at that moment why God calls all of us, even the little ones, to practice his love and show our faith in action.

Matthew 5:16

Let your light so shine before men, that they may see your good works, and glorify your Father which is in heaven.

Matthew 5:16

The entire time we were there we kept being asked why we were there, did we have any relatives there, who were we here to see, if we would ever come back. Sadly, the elderly don’t get visit enough by their loved ones and what an opportunity to reach to them and show them love, show them Jesus. Maybe just one trip is not enough, but the activities coordinator has asked us to come back for their Easter activity, Egg painting. She said kids are a blessing and believes they [boys] too will be blessed by being there.

Courtesy of Google

Tags: boys vs girls, character, elderly, faith, faith in action, God, Jesus, love, parenting, raising boys, responsibility