A Boy's Passage

Turning 13 for a young man is a big deal in our family.  My husband years ago read the book "Raising a Modern Day Knight" by Robert Lewis. It is a powerful book that we highly recommend to parents, particularly fathers, of boys.  We do a special ceremony at 13 and then again at 18 for them.  My third son turned 13 this past April and like my husband has done with my other older two sons, he took him on a special camping trip.  This trip also included close family and friends with their dads as well.  They had a great "man time" camping and on the second night of the trip had a special ceremony for Christian.  This past time was the largest crowd they have had on one of their trips and my husband said it was truly a powerful time of exhorting Christian to godly manhood.  My sons, and even my daughters because they have heard it so much, all know the definition of a real man, as taught by Robert Lewis in the above book:
Real Men.......Reject Passivity
Real Men.......Accept Responsibility
Real Men.......Lead Courageously
Real Men.......Expect God's Greater Reward
Other men chimed in encouraging their sons as well and Christian's older brothers and friends shared some awesome things too.  I wish I could of been there, but I know this is a sacred time for young men and I'm so glad my husband has been faithful in planning these times for each of them.

My husband on the trip with four of our six sons......Matthew and Patrick were a bit too young to go.

They were in the beautiful Appalachian Mountains of North Carolina and had great weather.

Christian with his 4 special friends.....all fine young godly men!

If you would like to read more about this from my husband's perspective, here is the link to his blog post about it.....it's much better than mine : )

http://jacobsenfam.blogspot.com/2011/06/passage.html