They're Watching

I was recently sent via email a link to a website that provides resources for teaching students. One of the links on the site took me to a video called "An Uphill Battle". The video shows a student walking down a typical school hallway. Every other student is going one way while he is walking the other, literally walking against the tide. The other students are bumping and jostling him and he has a look of dejection - a look that says he's tired of going it alone. As this is going on, the voice-over on the video talks about how we can and do get tired of going against the flow. How that sometime we come to a point where we feel that it would be easier to just give up, turn around and start walking the same direction as everyone else. As one student finally jostles him hard enough to knock his books out of his hand, he finally stops in his tracks. You can tell that he's had enough.

But then he turns his head around and looks back down the hallway. And there behind him are several other students who have been following him the entire time. He was never alone. There were always other people watching him, looking up to him and following in his footsteps. It's a powerful video with a powerful message. The funny thing is though that even though it's geared toward encouraging students not to give up on the Christian life, it spoke to me as a man.

When I watched that video, I didn't see a teenager walking down a hallway - I saw a man, a husband, a father. When he looked behind him I didn't see other students, I saw a family - a wife and children. We as men need to understand that our families are looking to us to be the spiritual leaders in our homes. They are looking to follow behind us as we navigate through the turbulent waters of this world. They are looking to us to be the leaders that God has called us to be.

Lately I'm around a lot of teenagers, both through time spent with my son's friends and through working with the youth at church. The damage done to these kids through divorce or through the actions of an absent father is a terrible thing, something that they will have to carry through their entire lives. Kids at that age shouldn't have to deal with bitterness and unforgiveness, but they are. They hide it well, but if you get them to open up you see the turmoil that lies just underneath the surface.

I'm sure the damage is done to both boys and girls, but maybe because I deal more with boys it seems the damage done there is more profound. They should have had a guide that they could walk behind until they were able to lead a family for themselves, but not only have they lost their leader but they've lost the one who was to teach them how to lead. These kids thought they had someone to follow, but have been left in a sea of turbulence to fend for themselves.

Men, when you are thinking about quitting - on Christ, on your marriage, on your family - please look behind you! Understand that your decisions don't just affect you. The decisions we make as men have long lasting effects on our children, so much so that those decisions will carry down to even our grandchildren and subsequent generations. We have a calling on our lives, to love our wives and children even as Christ loves the Church. It's not about why I want, what I need, what I desire. I am to give my life for my family.

Let us be like Paul, in that we can say to our wives and children ...

Follow my example, as I follow the example of Christ. - 1 Corinthians 11:1