For as long as I can remember, I enjoyed hanging out with
boys… they were straight forward and I really appreciated that. As a speech-language pathologist, my caseload
is mostly comprised of boys. I worked
for 7 years in the field before having my own.
All I know is boys. And I love
what God’s designed them to be.
But raising my own boys is daunting and overwhelming. Seriously.
I’ve been charged to raise future household spiritual leaders. I believe that you’ve been charged with the
same, Boy Momma. After I read “Wild at
Heart” by John Eldredge, I promised myself and my sons that I would not inflict
the mother wound on them willingly… that I would pray for the Lord to help me
and to be cognizant of what exactly my role would be in raising warriors for
Christ. It’s scary. I am scared out of my mind. That’s where prayer comes
in. Because I know that I have a God who
is bigger than my mistakes and my hang ups and my issues. I know that when I dedicated by boys at the
altar of my church, He stepped in.
Intro “Praying for Boys” by Brooke McGlothlin. I am honored to be able to write a review of
this book and it couldn’t come at a better time. I am weak and weary in the third trimester of
my third pregnancy with my third boy.
But I know what God’s called me to do and that’s changing who I am… in a
good way. My passion for advocating for
the “least of these” was honed in graduate school as I earned my master’s
degree in Speech-Language Pathology… my passion for making sure my boys don’t
choke on my apron strings, well, it’s kind of fierce.
By the end of the first chapter, Brooke asks, “ready to
fight?” As straight forward as the first
chapter is, it’s got a lot of truth in it: our culture tries to snuff out the
essence of manhood. As scary as the battle might be, you don’t have to re-invent the wheel! Brooke’s got it all laid out for us! I don't know about you, but I'm so sick of the enemy trying to tell me that I am gonna fail at this mothering thing... that I don't have what it takes... that my mistakes will scar my boys forever...
This book reminds us that God is with us and that prayer
changes us… And Brooke provides specific prayers to get us focused on virtues of Christian men. My religious upbringing balks at prayers
provided to me, but the neurons of my brain are often robbed of a cohesive
thought process… which makes it hard for me to articulate what I need and to
hear from the Lord. I’ve come to love
prayer prompts, as I call them.
Brooke gives us a safe place to be real with ourselves: we
are weak and human and we need God to help us through this season of
parenting. Too often religion expects us
to have it all together. We don’t, girls.
This book helps us be okay with that reality.
“God hasn’t asked me to win [this battle]… He’s only asked
me… asked you… to be faithful in the battle,”
Brooke writes. “The battle
belongs to the Lord…” Scriptures remind us.
Praying for Boys gives us tools and suggestions to
get you through these years when your sons demand your full attention…
which interferes with your previous precious planned alone time with God!
We have the influence to set heroes on the path to victory
or the power to decapitate our sons with our apron strings... this reality just
keeps driving me to my knees in prayer... while my weakness is more and more
exposed, His strength is all the more evident.
When we were growing up, my mom used to say all the time, “I gave you
two to the Lord when you were first born… His Word does not return void… I
trust that you two will be alright…” She reminded me of this when I shared with her the prayers of this book... "The Lord has those boys," she said.
Praying for Boys:
- Empowers us through the power of Jesus Christ in us
- Encourages us to be transparent and honest with our own needs and weaknesses
- Discussion questions are fantastic!
- The prayer prompts are spot on to training up a child in the way he should go!
Brooke also introduces the concept of fighting FOR our boys
and not AGAINST them… let’s face it… Men are not allowed to be men in our
society. I hear comments about how
stupid men are and how they don’t listen or don’t contribute or don’t clean
up. It makes me so mad. There are so many forces fighting AGAINST
them… they don’t need to fight us too.
This book gives so many tips and prayers to fight FOR our boys – for their
salvation and for their calling. I am
really thankful that this book came to me during this season of my life during
I feel my most weak and weary…
After today's sermon (yeah, I edited this during response time at church) and the events of this morning (loads of obstacles that just makes me mad), I am convicted that I react often before I just stop and pray... My nature is to get angry first... My hope for 2014 is to stop and pray before I react... Handing the situation to God... Depending on Him to help out.
No comments:
Post a Comment