I have one son and my prayer is that he will become a godly man who wants to serve the Lord and raise a family who serves God. When I was given the chance to review “Raising Real Men” by Hal and Melanie Young I jumped on the chance to read the book. The book’s subtitle is “Surviving, Teaching and Appreciating Boys” , and at this moment in my life with a 3 year old boy at home surviving his antics is a goal of mine! I also have moments of wondering can I actually homeschool an active and inquisitive little boy without destroying his eventual manliness.
Hal and Melanie Young are the parents of 6 boys and two girls, and have a lot of experience of raising and home educating boys. There advice is down to earth and almost feels like you chatting with them over a cup of coffee (or tea if you prefer that). Even if the Lord decides only to give me one little boy, this book will be a handy guide on what I can do to help him become a man of God without making him effeminate like the world would want him to be. One of the chapters even goes into resisting the feminization of boys – which is so timely in today’s world that wants girls to act like boys and boys to act like girls.
Scriptural to the hilt, using God’s Word really drives home the advice that the Young’s give from their real world experiences of raising six young men. Discussing items of interest such as hereos (no Spiderman) that are appropriate for our boys to look up to, how boys can be boys without sacrificing our or their Faith. One thing that I’ve been struggling with is wether or not to let my son use fake swords and/or guns and while I am still on the fence about guns as long as he knows the rules (no hitting animals, sisters, etc) I would allow fake sword play. There can be a time for this type of play – especially if he is defending his sisters and not killing anyone.
While I may not agree with everything that the Young’s wrote in this book, I can’t recall a specific item, this book is very sound in using Scripture to back up their beliefs and experiences in raising young men to be men of God. The Youngs have a great book and a wonderful resource for Christian parents who choose to utilize it and I do recommend this to anyone mom or dad who has one son or many becasue regardless on how many sons a family may have we want them all to be Godly men when they grow up.
* I was provided a copy of “Raising Real Men” by Hal and Melanie Young for my honest review.
** The book can be pre-ordered now by visiting Raising Real Men pre-orders.
*** The book is $15.00 and there is also an ebook option and a study guide available for purchase.
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