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A Man Child
Revelation 12:5
"And she brought forth a man child, who was to rule all nations with a rod of iron: and her child was caught up unto God, and to his throne."
Twice in Revelation 12, Jesus is called "a man child." The reason He is called this is because He was all man, even from His childhood. What I mean by this is that Jesus didn't act childish, but He acted like a man from His childhood. When Jesus graduated into adulthood, He wasn't still acting like a child, but He acted like a man. Jesus was a great example of how we should train our young men. From a child He started acting like a man, and when He became an adult, He didn't have to learn how to be a man for He was a man as a child.
I was recently talking to my good friend, Bro. Johnny Esposito, who is the Vice-President of Pacific Baptist Bible College in Long Beach, California. Our conversation was about how childish most men are these days. He told me a few stories of some of the men in his college whose childish actions amazed him. He then told me that our problem in today's society is that most men have a Peter Pan syndrome. What he meant by this is that there are men who still want to play like a child and who have never grown up. I concur with his analysis as I look at most men today and see that they still have child-like tendencies.
If our nation is going to be saved, then we need some young men who will grow up. This nation will not be saved by a bunch of childish men. When you study history, you will see that the men who changed their society were not childish men, but they were men. Just like Jesus acted like a man from a child, we need to start training our young men to be men from their childhood.
If this is going to happen, then there are several things we must do. First, men need to grow up. You will never make men out of boys when the men are acting like boys. It is sad when you have forty year old men who are still playing video games. Grow up! I'm not against a dad playing some video games with his children, but I am against a grown man being caught up in the video games himself. Men need to grow up and stop pushing their responsibilities off on their wives. Men need to grow up and start working instead of playing all the time. Men need to grow up and stop whining about how hard life is. I could go on and on, but if we are going to train our young boys to become men, then they need examples to follow.
Second, start training your boys to become men in their childhood. Teach them to work as a child. One of the greatest things that has destroyed our youth is the work permit. I know there will be some who don't like this, but to say a child can't work until they are fifteen is crazy. I'm not for them working forty hours a week, but I am for children learning as a child to work hard. Boys will not be men if all they do is play, boys will become men by working. Dad, take your boy with you and let him work with you. Furthermore, stop babying your boys. Every time they get a little boo boo, you don't need to baby them. Mom, if it is just a little scratch, you don't need to pamper him. If it needs a bandaid, then put it on the hurt and let your boy learn how to be toughened up a bit. Don't let your boy whine every time he gets hit on the football field. This is good for your boy.
Last, teach your boys responsibility. Give them responsibilities at home for which they are in charge. Teach them how to make decisions. When they don't fulfill their responsibility, admonish them and use it as a teaching aid to train them to follow through on responsibilities.
We are in desperate need of men. Boys will only become men if they are trained to be a man from childhood. Be sure that you are training a man and not a Peter Pan.