Raising Men Not BoysSample

SET YOUR BOY'S SPIRITUAL TRAJECTORY

It must be kept in mind that no matter how cute and adorable a newborn boy might be, he enters our world with a serious and far-reaching problem. Contrary to what many assume, human beings are not born into the world as blank slates or morally neutral beings. We are all “conceived in sin” (Ps. 51:5), as descendants of fallen ancestors (Gen. 3:20), sharing the same sinful nature as the rest of fallen humanity (Rom. 5:12–21).

The residual effects of our first parents’ rebellion against God are present in every child. Consider the biological effects of sin’s impact on our infants in something as common as a viral infection, or as serious as a life-threatening and debilitating birth defect, as was the case in the birth of my daughter. Every person’s vulnerability to the power of death, regardless of age, is convincing evidence that all humans share in the wages of Adam’s disobedience.

Thinking beyond the physical consequences of humanity’s fundamental problem, consider the far more serious manifestations, namely the propensity to continue the pattern of sin and rebellion against God’s righteous laws. Our boys don’t enter the world with a bent to do what is righteous (as charming as they may at times be to their mothers and grandmothers); they are predisposed to do what the Bible defines as sin. They fall short of God’s glorious standards and exist as young fallen humans, relationally alienated from the life of God. In other words, our boys need to be reconciled to their Maker, they need to be redeemed by Christ’s death on their behalf, and they need to be declared righteous by the regenerating work of the Holy Spirit.

This life-changing conversion of sinners should be the ardent hope and prayer of every Christian parent. We should want more than anything for our sons to come to a place of rightly understanding their need for the gospel of Jesus Christ. We ought to be praying that they will experience a profound sense of conviction over their own sins, and see the incomparable value of Christ’s suffering on their behalf. None of this is possible without the work of God’s Spirit in their lives. I trust we can say with the apostle Paul, “My heart’s desire and prayer to God for them is that they may be saved” (Rom. 10:1).