The enemy has revealed himself with furious subtly! I had mistakenly thought that this portion of the journey would be accomplished without incident—how wrong I have been. The combination of starting a new sales position coupled with my son’s floundering commitment has proven to be formidable foes. On my side of the fence, I am personally challenged to balance my work schedule with all-important family time. I have come home late wanting to only “veg-out” rather than stay true to my part of the journey. The other side of the story is that I told my son when I began the new position that our schedule would change and that he would need to initiate some of our daily reading time. We have not abandoned our journey in the least; we have realized that we are being overcome by our enemy’s fatigue, scheduling challenges and waning commitment. The good news in all of this is the fact that our relationship has not waned. We have talked about this a lot when I tell him goodnight. Our determination is still intact; so a new plan has been forged. To recap, this portion of the journey is meant to focus on the mental side of manhood. The rite of passage found in the Hall of Knowledge is to read three books together and discuss how they apply to manhood. This additional information is to be added to the verses in the Bible that have been memorized along with the wisdom well and the man mirror.
What I appreciate about this struggle at this part of our journey is that fact that it has the ability to teach my son about real-life issues and how to overcome them. As adults we deal with such things on a daily basis. If my son can grab the lessons found in this challenge, I believe he will be way ahead in the manhood journey. Challenges happen everyday. Some we have no control over, while others we create ourselves. We have to decide if the challenges will win or if we will prevail. By having someone to confide in as well as being open and honest in the discussion—regardless of fault, how do I overcome it?—we can make a decision on how to come out on top.
The original plan was to read six pages a day from the first book—which happens be The Divine Mentor by Wayne Cordeiro—which would allow us to complete it by the end of October. The new plan begins this evening and will require 34 pages to be read each night this week in order to accomplish our goal. The challenges that accompany this redirected plan are as follows. First my schedule has not changed, which means when I come home I will have to put aside whatever “feelings” I have to meet with my son in our man cave. Secondly my son’s willingness to accomplish the objective will likely be challenged as well. Finally the goal is not simply get to the last page of the book, but rather discover how it applies to our manhood journey. It may be that we discover that reaching the end of the book within the allotted time frame is only costing us precious discovery of very valuable information—meaning the newly set goal isn’t worth the cost associated with it. If we discover that to be the case, we will simply need to modify our new strategy.