The other day, I had one of those parenting moments that stopped me in my tracks.
After I responded to Beckett with a short temper, he looked up at me and said, “I don’t like the way my stomach feels when you talk like that… but I won’t cry, ‘cause that’s for babies.”
Oh my lanta, friend. His words hit me right in the gut. In one sentence, my little boy revealed two things:
- He already feels the physical impact of emotions in his body.
- He’s absorbing the cultural message that boys shouldn’t cry.
That’s when I realized—raising emotionally strong boys doesn’t just happen. It requires intention.
The Wake-Up Call From a Book
I had just finished reading Raising Emotionally Strong Boys, and the timing could not have been more divine. One of the author’s central themes is this: what if we raised boys to see prioritizing their mental health as wisdom, not weakness?
That question alone reframed everything for me.
We often measure our boys’ success in sports stats, academic performance, or leadership potential. But what if emotional health mattered just as much—if not more? What if we started to see resilience not as “toughing it out” but as having the courage to feel deeply and respond with wisdom?
Pointing Boys to Jesus as Their Anchor
Here’s where it gets even more powerful: Jesus Himself modeled emotional strength.
- He wept when His friend Lazarus died.
- He flipped tables in righteous anger at injustice.
- He felt deep sorrow in the Garden of Gethsemane.
And yet, His strength was unshakable—rooted in tenderness, compassion, mercy, and love.
Friend, if we want our boys to grow into men who love well and lead well, we need to show them that this is masculinity. Not stoicism. Not emotional suppression. But Christ-like compassion and courage.
A Vision for the Next Generation
Imagine if we gave emotional health the same energy we give to sports schedules and academic tutoring. Imagine if we truly believed that raising boys with strong hearts and grounded faith was of the greatest importance with the longest benefit.
That’s the kind of generational shift this book invites us into—and why I can’t recommend it enough.
✨ Grab Raising Emotionally Strong Boys here on Amazon.
Final Thoughts
That night with Beckett reminded me: our words shape how our children see themselves. Books like this one are helping me untangle cultural lies and replace them with truth.
Because raising emotionally strong boys? It’s not about raising “tough” boys. It’s about raising whole, healthy, faith-filled men who know that emotions aren’t the enemy—they’re God-given guides pointing us back to Him.
