Raising Boys To Men Through Work

I have been reading a lot lately on raising men.  I have a 3 year old son.  I want to begin raising him to be a godly man.  One resource that I have found to be tremendously helpful is Doug Wilson's, Future Men.  In it Wilson discusses masculinity, fatherhood, sin, laziness, liberty and much more, all from a biblical perspective.  Scriptural references probably make up about fifteen percent of the entire book.

I was challenged and encouraged today when I read about laziness and work.  Wilson states:

We were created to work.  But when sin entered, God in His wisdom saw that thorns and thistles were now needed (Gen 3:17-19).  In His grace, God cursed the ground.  Just as the law is a schoolmaster to bring us to Christ, so is the sweat of the brow...

And so this is why boys need to be taught and disciplined in physical labor.  Of course it is not an end in itself - the point should always be grace - but in the hands of wise parents, hard physical work is an important part of a boy's discipleship.  He needs to know what it is like to be exhausted, to have callouses on his hands, and to work when his body does not really want to anymore.  He needs this; God said so.

I was challenged because, in my own laziness, I'd rather pay someone to do most of the physical labor around my house.  But hired labor is not going to father my son.  I must repent of any laziness and faithfully work with my little boy.  I think I'll have him weed-eat this weekend!  Not really...

I was also encouraged and so thankful for my father, who regularly woke me up on Saturdays to help him work around the house.  As a teen, these were less than desired times.  Sleeping was preferable to building a deck or fence.  But, looking back, those times were deeply satisfying.  Much of what my dad taught me remains with me to this day.  For the most part, I can work with my hands.  This was given to me by a father who loved me enough to teach me about work.  Thanks Andy for being such a great father.