Lessons from the Closet

Can I just be honest and admit to you that last year was one of my scariest years of parenting?  I mean, I was parenting a 13 year old boy, ALONE!  Ahhhh, the responsibility.  There were more than several times I thought I would have to put him in a box and ship him to his father.  Not for anything he had done, but just because I felt so inept at parenting a teen boy.

Oh, how I am glad that year is over.  And oh how thankful I am he has a father that invests daily into the lives of he and his brother.

But hey, I have also discovered a little secret that may be what I was missing last year.

Dad parents him in the closet.

No really, stay with me here.

It is a phenomena that I have just recently noticed.

You see, more than several times in the past few months I have wandered past our master closet to hear voices coming from it.  And every time I check to see what is going on in there without me the conversation seems to lull.  No mistake about it though, my husband and one of the boys would be chatting in the closet.

I was starting to take things a little personally until I caught wind of snippets of the conversations.  Moms are stealthy like that, you know! ;)

The truth I learned- there were a lot of lessons being taught in that closet time.

Simple lessons like-

What color socks to wear with church pants.

Which side your belt goes into the loops of your pants.

No, that shirt does not match your pants.

Or a few deeper ones-

When you are disrespectful to you mom, you are disrespectful to me.

A repentant heart is a heart that makes a change.


See, not necessarily things I am incapable of teaching, but rather things that just seem to mean more when coming from a father or father figure.

We need the men in our lives to step up and take an active role in the lives of our children.  We need the men of this country to invest in the younger generation of men we are raising up to be leaders. While mommies are so important and have their own wealth of information to share, I am thankful that there are men able and willing to guide the young men in our lives.

The first being their father.  He is pretty special indeed!

Linking up with friends-

Blessings,