Aiming Our Arrows

Moms met together. We shared some of our precious time with each other. Connie Fulks opened her home and shared openly from her heart. We discussed some of our concerns about raising sons. We offered encouragement and even a little advice, then we left. An evening that was much anticipated by me is already over, but hopefully, and more importantly, the women that were there began a conversation that won't end just because the evening ended.

There were several questions asked that would be good for every woman with sons to ask. One thing that God reaffirmed to me was that we need to ask each other questions. It was so great to hear different perspectives to the questions being asked and it was wonderful to sit in the room and hear affirmation being given to different women in the room after their questions were asked. You know, a lot of parenting is overwhelming and sometimes it is scary. If you are insecure at all (like me), it is easy to second guess every decision you make and it is easy to think that everyone else already knows what the answers are and you are the only one in the dark. 

If we could just get away from the idea that we are supposed to already have all the answers, then maybe, more questions would get asked and more questions would get answered to make us all better parents.

We are not alone in our desire to raise Godly young men, but sometimes it feels like we are. Godliness is completely the opposite of the society norm for our sons. They are bombarded with images by the media. Their toys are often video games that do absolutely nothing to help them mature. They are expected to fit into categories or stereotypes and are often ridiculed when they are unique.

Yet, there is a glimmer of hope. There actually are boys that are growing up and maturing in their walk with Christ. I see many of those boys turning into young men who are serving the Lord. They are changing to be more like Him and they are applying scripture to their lives. What more could a mom desire for her son?

Psalm 127:4 says, "Like arrows in the hand of a warrior, so are the children of one's youth."  If our children are arrows, then they need to be directed so that they hit the right target. A warrior is a skilled marksman who takes aim and then shoots. He does target practice to get better and better at his aim. We have to decide what we are supposed to aim our children towards and then begin practicing to get better and better at the skill of parenting them toward that goal.

Sometimes, we assume that our children are heading one direction, but they are actually aimed a different way... Sometimes we have to take steps to correct the course that they are on so that we help them hit the right target... Sometimes we need to correct the course that we are on so that we are aiming for the right target ourselves.

Just remember that the right target has nothing to do with what they are going to be when they grow up or how good their grades are or where they are going to go to college. It has everything to do with Whom they are going to serve and whether they are going to grow up to be warriors for Christ themselves. We all agree that there is a battle going on for the hearts and minds of our children and we need to diligently aim our "arrows" toward a life of following Christ.