"Another important principle is that of seeing small boys as future men. The way boys learn to deal with their various immature "passions" will generally be the way they deal with adult passions. A boy who is not obviously learning self-control with regard to his temper, his … [Read more...]

"But liberty always implies a standard, and this standard always brings with it an antithesis. This means that he who says 'free from' must also assert a specified 'free to.' A man cannot turn away from something without simultaneously turning to something. Liberty always assumes … [Read more...]

"A boy who is allowed to drift downward into this sin [laziness] is also being prepared for a life of poverty . . . (Prov. 6:6-11). God does not just promise poverty to this young man, He promises that it will come upon him like a thug with a gun. In the good providence of God, … [Read more...]

"Related to this, a wise father rejoices in the fruit of his discipline. This is why many 'disciplinarians' are not disciplinarians in the biblical sense at all. They discipline because they are annoyed or irritated; they are almost impossible to please and they go through life … [Read more...]

"The opposite problem to effeminacy is that of embracing, enthusiastically, a truncated view of masculinity, what I call counterfeit masculinity. This problem 'glories' in masculinity, but has a view of it that no wise observer should consider glorious at all. There is more to … [Read more...]

"There are two basic directions a boy can take in departing from biblical masculinity. One is the option of effeminacy, and the other is a macho-like counterfeit masculinity. With the former, he takes as a model a set of virtues which are not supposed to be his virtues. With the … [Read more...]

"And this is why it is absolutely essential for boys to play with wooden swords and plastic guns. Boys have a deep need to have something to defend, something to represent in battle. And to beat the spears into pruning hooks prematurely, before the war is over, will leave you … [Read more...]

"Before taking a road trip, it is a very good idea to have some idea of where you are going. Before rearing a son to be 'masculine,' it is equally important to have some notion of what that is . . . Manhood is where boyhood should be aimed" (Future Men, p. 13). … [Read more...]

"But in our day, many of these designed masculine traits are drilled or drugged out of him by the time he is ten. Faith resists this ungodly process and defines sin by the Scriptures and not by pietistic traditions" (Future Men, p. 11). … [Read more...]

"Not even God knows what is true. Remember that for postevangelicals, God is out of it and pretty groggy. True postmoderns know that He is dead, and that is why He does not view objective truth from His Nowhere House. But we in the postev milieu are still sensitively struggling … [Read more...]