Mark and Lig, if you haven’t already read the Winter 2005 issue of Southern Seminary magazine (The Tie) you must do so!  The issue is titled “Show yourself a man” and there are two excellent articles for fathers and sons:

“Show yourself a man” by Randy Stinson (I am presently reading this article with my 12 year old son Chad).

“When does a boy become a man?” by Al Mohler (I will be reading this article with Chad in the future).  Actually Al gave this message here at Covenant Life (“Being Men and Raising Men,” November 5, 2004) and it was a unique and outstanding message.  I’m not aware of material like this in print and I will continue to annoy Al until an expanded version of this material is in print.  Don’t get me started on all I want Al to publish!

And finally Al’s “President’s Journal” column titled “The Boy Problem, Then and Now” is an insightful summation of Terrence Moore’s essay, “Wimps and Barbarians: The Sons of Murphy Brown.”  Here's a great quote from Al’s column:

“Wimps, on the other hand, look to women for emotional support, consider girlfriends to be conversational partners and look to women for pity.”

Don’t want to be one of those!

Somehow this reminded me of a rule I want us to adopt for our blog.  No smiley faces allowed!  Real men do not use smiley faces on e-mails!  This is fine for the ladies, but not the men.  Real men communicate humor effectively without having to use a smiley face and real men can discern the presence of genuine humor without seeing a smiley face.  So let our blog be free from all wimp-like communication!