Book of the Week: Raising a Modern-Day Knight

Knight-boyI finished reading Robert Lewis’ Raising a Modern-Day Knight this week.  Lewis is the author of the Men’s Fraternity curriculum that has really impacted the men in our church.  I highly recommend this book to anyone raising boys!

Lewis teaches that most people have a poor definition of manhood in our society.  As fathers, our responsibility is not only to teach our boys what it means to be men, but to actually affirm that and call out the man in our sons.  He uses a lot of symbolism from medieval knighthood practices.  You may or may not copy his ideas, but what I walked away with most of all is that boys don’t become men by accident.  And they also remember what we celebrate and invest in.

He incorporates family crests, weekend ceremonies, and a whole lot of creativity.  He has some great theological and biblical teaching on manhood.  Coupling these two together makes a quick and idea-spurring read.

Top 5 ideas:

  1. “In fact, many of the social problems of our day (plummeting morality, rising crime, violence, abuse, reckless pleasure-seeking) spring from the soil of directionless, disconnected sons” (3).
  2. “For too long fathers have been lost in the wilderness, pursuing careers and pleasures at the expense of their children” (38).
  3. “For some reason, men of every age become passive when it comes to initiating this action in their homes, with their families, and in their communities” (52).
  4. “What is a transcendent cause?  It is a mission that lifts us beyond ourselves, a passion that stirs us to a self-sacrifice and causes us to contribute to the larger community.  A transcendent cause is not something we do in addition to everything else; instead, it is the one factor that motivates everything else we do” (85-86).
  5. We remember because of ceremony. Think back upon the significant moments in your life.  With few exceptions, the value of those moments was sealed by ceremonies.  Someone took the time to plan the details, prepare the speech, and purchase the awards – so you would feel special” (99).

1 thought on “Book of the Week: Raising a Modern-Day Knight”

Comments are closed.