From Little Boy to H.E.R.O.

"Raising Boys By Design" by Gregory L. Jantz, and Michael Gurian is a book I wish I had read when my boys were younger.  This is an excellent resource which helped me better understand my role as a father to two teenage boys.  The authors don’t tell you what to do on every aspect of raising boys, since every person is different, but there are great learning tools, in which I could see myself and what I’ve done correctly and what I’ve messed up on. 

Reading this book will help me to be a better father, to encourage and strengthen my boys to become mature and Godly, Christ centered men of God.  The book is broken into two sections.  The goal of the first section is to help the reader understand God’s plan for boys.  They do this by helping us understand boys develop differently than girls.  In addition, they explain what boys learn from moms and what they learn from dads.  They generalize, but are pretty much on target with what they write.

The second section is an attempt to put it all together.  The goal is to have our boys be H.E.R.O.s for God.  They use the acronym HERO, which means ~

Honor: adhering to truth, values and principles beyond self
Enterprise: working at important things whether they seem small or large
Responsibility: carrying important things and people throughout life
Originality: being a dreamer, a thinker, an explorer in the world

The goal, then is to enhance and develop these areas in your boys.  While all of our children, boys and girls have similar struggles, they often go about dealing with them and resolving them in different ways.  Again, the authors seek to explain how to help our boys develop by writing about areas such as — character and self-discipline, protecting their heart, sexuality, school, technology, and move forward into the world.

Overall, this an excellent resource to have.  I hope to reread this book and share it with my boys so they know I am invested in their future, and am trying to be a better father to the boys God has blessed me with.

I received a review copy of this book from WaterBrook Multnomah in exchange for an honest review.