Recently, I became a manager. I became the manager of the Instructional League Red Sox. My son, Caedmon, is playing this year for the first time. I have worked with him in the yard for the past couple of years. He does pretty well hitting the ball and I am excited to see him on the field for the first time.
I grew up with a love for the game. My dad instilled that love into me. He always loved baseball and he passed that love down to me. I played all my life and was blessed enough to play through college. I always said that I would never coach my kids' baseball teams. I would rather sit back and watch. However, while talking with my best friend about this subject, my perspective changed. He used to share the same perspective on coaching his kids, but he realized that if God has blessed us with the knowledge, experience, and talent to play the game, it would be dishonoring to him to not share that with young, aspiring ball players.
So, I decided to volunteer to be the manager for Caedmon's team. We have not started yet, but we will soon and I feel a little overwhelmed at times about it. But, at the same time, I am excited to pass down what I know to a new generation of ball players.
There is another, deeper element to all of this as well. These kids are at an impressionable young age. They are growing up in a world that is constantly changing and not necessarily for the better. We live in a world where there is no guarantee that young boys will grow up with a great fatherly example. There are young men who are growing up not knowing how to be men. We live in an age where the age of adulthood is becoming older and older. We are seeing young men who are having a hard time launching into independence because they don't know how. We are seeing young men who are living like children rather than adults.
I think one of the reasons for this is because fathers have either been absent, indifferent, or lazy. We have fathers who are pouring themselves into their jobs to the point that they are neglecting their families. I have seen men in church who are sitting back and letting their wives be the spiritual leaders of their families. Men, we are making the same mistake that Adam did. We are sitting back and letting Satan grab a hold of our families. This needs to stop.
Recently, for Valentine's Day, my wife bought me a piece of wall art. It is black with three phrases written in white: Seek Justice, Love Mercy, Walk Humbly with your God. She bought this for me because she said this is the kind of guy I am. Wow! I was humbled by this because all I can see our my mistakes. This is the kind of man I am striving to be and this is the kind of man that God wants his male followers to be.
We live in a society where the differences between men and women are more blurred than ever in our country. We need men who are willing to be all about truth and justice. We need men who are not going to sit idly by and let the world raise their kids for them. We need men who will humble themselves before God and be the spiritual leaders that they have been saved to be. We need to grow up, men. We need to grow up in the Lord and start being an example of what it means to be a godly man. We need to start passing down what we know to the younger generations. We need to invest our time in our kids and other kids so that we can show them how to follow Jesus.
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