Just read a powerful article by Ann Voskamp, a NY Time best-selling author of A Thousand Gifts. This article is important because it discusses what to teach our adolescents and emerging adults about sexual abuse and violence.
Here is the Article!
It is longer than many articles, so make sure that you have the time to read and digest it. Each time that I have read it, I finished inspired and encouraged in my role as a man and father of three sons.
Wow, here are a few of my favorite quotes.
1. And better stories begin around our dinner tables and our kitchen sinks.
Stories around our dinner tables and kitchen requires spending time together as a family. This requires saying no to the endless activities of our world, and saying yes to better things.
2. It is the scarred ones who make the Body of Christ sensitive.
I know because I am a scarred one. I was actually scarred by the church (and I am not alone). I am not thankful to those who gave them to me, but I am grateful to the God who sustains me daily. These scars don’t define me, but they have shaped me in ways I once never imagine.
3. You don’t value a woman by telling yourself that she’s some man’s sister, or daughter, or mother. A woman doesn’t derive value from having men in her life that value and like her. A woman has value because she is made in the image and likeness of God. Period.
I have heard this false argument so many times. Women do not receive their value due to their relationships with men. They have value because of their relationship to God as Creator. I don’t want my sons to treat women respectfully because they fear a dad sitting in the living room cleaning a gun. I want my sons to fear God to whom they will give an account one day.
4. That’s what you have to get, Sons — Real Manhood knows the heart of God for the daughters of His heart.
I want my sons to know that Real Manhood understands God’s love for men and women.
5. Son, let everything you read of women be shaped by how Jesus sealed His view and value of women.
There is a beautiful piece of poetry in the center about Jesus’ view of women. It is amazing.
May God make me a real man who will stand up for the value of women in the church.
May God make me a real father who will teach my sons to value women.
May God do the same to you.
Dr. G. David Boyd is the Founder and Managing Director of EA Resources, a non-profit designed to minister to the needs of Emerging Adults and their parents.
