Raising strong boys
Our Marriage & the Family page has uplifting content from Family & Faith Magazine founded by Editorial Director Shelly-Ann Harris.
YESTERDAY was Father’s Day and we hope that fathers across Jamaica were pampered and celebrated in sincere appreciation for the critical, leading role they play in cultivating a disciplined and loving family life. Today we take advice from three exceptional Jamaican fathers about how to raise strong boys.
Principal of Operation Restoration Christian School, Robert Dixon, asserts that, “Children spell love T-I-M-E. We have to spend time with our children. For both my son and the children at school, I see my life as a foundation for these students.”
The young principal advances that, “For my son, his foundation, his identity, is linked to me, to who I am, and to who I am in Christ, but for my students who have no other foundation who probably don’t know their fathers, can I be that foundation for them? Can I be so secure in myself that they can build their life on who I am and what I stand for?”
Another exceptional father, economist and public figure Dr Wayne Henry, points to three strategies for growing strong boys. First, he says it’s important “to be present, to be alongside, to be near”. Then, “There must be instruction and advice. Solomon, he said, listen to my advice son, heed my warning and you will prosper.”
His third nugget of wisdom is the need to show boys lessons and principles by example.
“A lot of times we are too willing to say do as I say and not as I do, and there is a key of leadership that we miss where Paul says follow me as I follow Christ. We don’t invite people to follow us… part of leadership, part of mentoring is that you have to be that example — the willingness to put on display, even with your mistakes and your flaws, that example,” the father of three insists.
Manufacturer and motivational speaker Altano Morgan adds that the key to raising a strong boy is teaching him that there is a God, a Father, who loves him despite the challenges he comes across in life.
“There is a father there that will take care of him. There is a father there that wants the best for him. Even as an earthly father you are not going to be there every time to guide him and to teach him and all the different things, but when you tell him about the Father up above who is looking down with his tender love, showing you, guiding you, directing you, that’s the fundamental foundation for me for raising a strong boy,” Morgan declares.
See more advice from these awesome fathers in an uplifting documentary at familyandfaithmagazine.com
