“Boyhood” by Glenn McClure

Do you remember the summers of your boyhood? Ice cream, your favorite bike, fishing, camping, swimming, exploring in the woods. There was something glorious about being a boy during the summer!

If you were lucky or blessed, you had a Dad or an uncle take you on adventures during the summertime. My Dad drove us from Vermont to Maine almost every summer to my Uncle Joe’s camp. I loved going to Uncle Joes’ camp-especially when my Dad didn’t have to leave to go back to work. The camp was on a lake in the woods where I would spend day after day swimming, fishing, discovering special rocks or sticks to my heart’s content. Too much of the time at camp though, I spent away from my Dad. Looking back, I would have chosen shorter vacations with my Dad, than longer ones without him.

John Eldredge writes that the deeper question in a boy’s soul-even deeper than “Do I have what it takes?”-is “Do you delight in me?” This core question is what we are going after during the Father’s Heart Weekend. The answer we will deposit in our sons’ souls is a resounding “YES! “I LOVE BEING WITH YOU!” “I love what you love!” “You are the apple of your father’s eye!”

You might be thinking to yourself right now-“I am a million miles away from remembering my boyhood.” Or for some, we may recall with pain the parts of ourselves that were lost or cut short in our boyhood. And that pain may have followed us all the way into adulthood as fathers. No question-there are things we wanted from our fathers that we did not get. There are parts of our stories that are blank. As fathers, part of the work we have to do now–leading up to the Father’s Heart weekend–is getting in touch with the boy within.

> What did you love or wish for as a boy?
> What was lost or stolen?
> What did you love to play?
> What would you like the Father to do for you now or during the weekend?
> What would you love to do for your son?

Let’s begin to remember and get in touch with our boyhood as we move towards August 22-24.