A Few Good Men

Ryan's been reading a book given to him by my Gramps. We have so much respect for Gramps. We named Max after him, in fact. He is such a godly man, and full of love and generosity for everyone in his circle of influence - which is huge. Recently, he passed this book on to all of his grandsons along with handwritten notes because he thought it was "valuable for instruction and insight." He suggested that Ryan read it one chapter at a time to let it really soak in. The book is about men "stepping up" into the role that God has for them as leaders. 

This morning while Ryan and I were getting firewood out of the pasture he said he was enjoying the book, especially because it made him more aware that he needs to be consciously teaching our boys exactly what it takes to be good men. We dreamed a little about the future (I was looking forward to the day when we'd have three more sets of hands to help us load the truck with wood!) and just had a great conversation (no naughty boy events this time...)

When we brought the wood down to the house, we recruited our little future men to help unload and stack it. One unnamed child didn't emerge from the house until the truck was halfway unloaded. He made a lame excuse about not being able to find his coat and Daddy launched into a lecture about shirking your duty, doing what needs to be done, etc. Basically a six-year-old version of the "step it up, man" lecture. We left the boys with a task and went back for load #2 with a promise to be back with even more work. Round two went much better, with everyone pulling their own weight. In Max's case, pulling his weight meant making loud grunting noises while throwing chunks of bark near the woodpile. Then, Ryan decided to split a few larger pieces. He had the boys back up so they wouldn't get hit. They lined up nearby and oohed and ahhed at how strong Daddy was. I took that opportunity to brag on what a hard worker Daddy was, and how it's so nice that he keeps us warm in the winter and all the wood we just loaded came from trees that he cut down and sawed into logs without any help from us. "You have a hard workin' daddy," I told them. They admired him for several minutes and I had to shirk my duty long enough to snap this pic.

I love that my boys have a good, strong daddy to look up to. And I love that he has a godly man to learn from, too. My prayer is that someday our boys are the ones wielding their own axes with admiring eyes looking on and that Ryan is the one writing messages inside books for young men in his circle of influence.

Doesn't get much cuter than baby Gramps!

Gramps as a daddy - that's my mom!