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Category:
Religion
Publisher: Lulu.com
ISBN-10: 1411698355
Type: Non-Fiction
Pages: 123
Copyright: May 2006
ISBN-13: 9781411698352
With 1 Corinthians 13:11 as a starting point, this book establishes a standard process within a biblical context for helping the transition from youth to adulthood. It is especially designed to help parents and young men who are struggling and need to see and face the reality of growing up. It encourages young men to step up, put away childish things, take responsibility for their lives, and understand God's definition of manhood.
What is Abandonment?
Something dreadfully subtle has happened to us during the last half century, and this time we did it to ourselves. You see, when I was young, you could always trust your parents. However, from my generation on, this assurance has steadily grown weaker. I recall the decline in the attention my generation gave to children. We became too busy when we should have been bonding with our children in their early years. We were preoccupied and we pushed them away. Can you imagine how our babies must have felt?
When they were babies, it was pacifiers to keep them quiet and give us time to rest. Instead of understanding the reason for our babies’ cries, we just stuck the pacifiers in their mouths and ignored what bothered them. As they became toddlers, we bought swing sets that automatically rocked them back and forth until they fell asleep. Were we teaching them how to mask their own problems? What they were concerned about did not seem matter anymore. We gradually became more adept at freeing ourselves and forgetting their concerns. To some of us, our children became little creatures that got in the way of our fun and our stuff. We longed to be free and we went off to do our own thing. One fourteen year-old bible study student told me, “We can’t trust older people. They lie and are never there when we need them.”
To make things worse, men found it okay to let single moms, nurseries, school, teachers, babysitters, television, Internet, peer pressure, cell phones, and video games raise our kids. Consequently, we men ought to accept the blame for misleading our children about morality. In an indirect way, we have trained them to be irresponsible adults. Now it is coming back to haunt us. We have a mess on our hands and we need to fix it quickly. By the way, children learn by example.
The following are attributes of someone who has remained a boy for far too long. When should that boy step up, accept the blame, become a man, and do something about it?
Excerpt
Daddy, Can You Hear the Lions Roaring?
Do you remember the song that talks about the lion sleeping at night in the jungle? Well, the song is wrong. At night lions do not sleep, they hunt. Watching TV documentaries about animals can be interesting. The Serengeti is full of lions, zebras, hyenas and other animals, both predator and prey.
1 Peter 5:8 – Be sober, be vigilant; because your adversary the devil, as a roaring lion, walketh about, seeking whom he may devour:
In the middle of the jungle a water buffalo is about to give birth. There is just one problem – lions are on the prowl. They have been watching the mother for days and waiting for an opportune moment to attack. The baby drops, and the exhausted, hungry mom becomes enticed by the water and herbs in a nearby field. Intoxicated by her desire to taste the leaves, she walks away. The baby has five minutes to learn to walk, run, and think. Five minutes is not enough time and unfortunately, the baby is attacked. Suddenly, the mother becomes aware of the lions. She returns and fights for the life of her baby. If only she had not walked away. If only the father had been there. In the jungle, abandonment can be deadly. In the end, the mother and child are devoured .
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