Celebrate Your Son

This is a guest post from one of our closest allies and an expert on boys, David Thomas. Find out more about David and his work on his website or at Daystar.

Its missing in our culture. We just don’t have the rituals seen in other cultures to celebrate a boy on his journey toward manhood. Take him in. He is a force with which to be reckoned and he needs to know it, see it and celebrate it in this culture that would attempt to emasculate him. We see a great picture of this in the Jewish culture with the Bar Mitzvah. In it the end of one stage celebrates with beginning of another.

I had an opportunity to be a part of celebrating a young man. He was an eagle scout. He loved the outdoors and had a long history of camping with others. During his journey toward manhood one day his father had mapped out a trail through the woods. The two them started hiking a journey together. This amazing dad had placed several important people in his life along this trail. They included his grandfathers, friends, uncles and me. Everyone shared key blessings of the past and future and hopes about him and his journey. At the end of the experience all of the participants joined other family members as they celebrated the son. This blessing ritual clearly marked his evolution into manhood. It is a memory that will fill campfire stories and remembrances that give life.

How do you celebrate your son? Is it an event? A weekend? Doing things with him he loves (whether you do or not)? Celebrate him between grade and middle school, middle and high, his first shave, the drivers permit or license. Celebrate him in a way that will pierce his heart.