Recently, I was asked at what age did my children start hunting.  This mother said her son was interested in getting a BB gun but that she was feeling unsure about it.  This post is in reply to that question, in addition to a few more of my thoughts on boys becoming men.  I in no way feel like I have all the answers but since my husband and I have 4 boys these are things we think about.  We live in a society where women try to dominate and men are becoming more effeminate.  Have you heard of the term the metrosexual man?  This is a man who "wears designer…

Do my children realize how important they are to me?  It’s not enough that I know that they are one of my highest priorities, I must convey that to them. I say they are my highest priorities but what do my action speak?  I catch myself giving them minimal attention when they come to tell me something I may consider trivial or worse, being impatient.  I notice that I seem too busy to spend time doing things with them that they enjoy.  My life becomes one of function, just trying to stay on track with all the tasks that need to be completed and when I do diverge it’s to focus on interests of mine. If…

This really struck a chord with me today. In his book Hints on Child Training, H. Clay Trumbull (who I believe is the great-great grandfather of Elisabeth Elliott) wrote: “Child training is, in many a case, the bringing of a child into purely conventional ways, instead of bringing out into freest play, in the child, those qualities and characteristics which mark him as a unique and individual personality among the sons of men. How to learn wherein it needs curbing or changing, is a question of questions in child training.” This is really making me think. So often I think I train my children with an eye for making them look…