Trained To Worship At The Altar Of Sports, Part 1
When my twin sons were born, I felt a bit overwhelmed. I was overwhelmed and sobered with the thought of having to raise boys.
With my daughter, I guess because I am a girl, it felt more like a discipleship, like she was following right behind me.
With my sons, all of the sudden, I felt the burden of all my criticisms against my husband and men in general coming back to bite me!
Women in general are unhappy with men. 70% of divorces are initiated by women. Then, narrowing it down even more, Christian women talk a lot about how men aren’t leaders/heads of household, I know I have!
So then what does it mean for me, a mom, to raise sons who will be leaders/heads of their household? How would I do it? And no, I couldn’t expect my husband to do all of it. We didn’t live on farm or have some sort of family business where dad would take sons to work everyday. My husband was the sole breadwinner which meant he was away at work…which meant he wasn’t home most of the time. And as soon as we found out I was pregnant with twins, my husband started looking for a better paying position within his company. The position started the week our sons were born with his first business trip scheduled when they were 3 weeks old! So the way I saw it, if he went to work to provide for us, then I had the lion’s share of childrearing.
So, I came up with a thoughtful list and vision of what kind of men I wanted my sons to be. It’s what I now call my “parenting plan” and something that I also now encourage clients to do. Because honestly, when you have a vision and a focus, it makes decision making easier. Throughout your years of parenting, you will always need to constantly reassess and tweak, but it will give you clarity as to how to move forward.
On my parenting plan, one of my top priorities was raising men who would be strong spiritual leaders for their families. And I had specific ideas of what that would look like. So one of the hardest decisions I made for my sons? No sports on Sundays…
