The Map.
As was briefly mentioned in an earlier blog, my son and I have discussed putting a map in together that gives us some understanding of how our journey will look. This map has a two-fold purpose with the first being a fun activity that we can do together. The second purpose of our map is to give us a pictorial overview of what the journey will be.
Thus far the outline of our map has the following points of interest.
1—the beginning place—our current home
2—the man mirror—depicted by a small pond
3—the well of wisdom
4—the spiritual rite of passage—in our case a 13-week journey
5—the mental rite of passage—yet to be determined
6—the physical rite of passage—has some outline, but nowhere near complete
7—The destination—which we have begun to call Man Mountain as opposed to Lonely
Mountain
The idea behind the man-mirror is to have times of reflection where you quietly sit and reflect on how your journey is progressing. The idea of the man-mirror comes from our discussion on what it means to be a man. You may recall from an earlier blog that we discussed three things that the bible speaks of about being a man.
1—taking care of God’s creation
2—taking care of my family
3—building a relationship with God
This time of reflection means you are to find a quite place near the still waters of the pond and look at your reflection. What do you see? Are you taking care of God’s creation, your family and building a relationship with God? If your answer is yes—great. If your answer is no—then what do I need to do adjust?
The idea behind the well of wisdom is to draw from the wisdom of God’s word as well as wise men.
From time-to-time it is important to stop and take a long drink of wisdom water. Besides that wisdom coming from the word of God, hopefully as the father, you will be the wise one your son draws that wisdom from. However, do not be afraid or offended if he seeks that wisdom from someone else—if in fact it is wisdom that he is receiving. Rather be glad that on his journey your son is doing the right thing. I believe this to be a vital part of his journey. As his father, I certainly would hope that, one, I have shown him that I have some valuable input to offer and two, that our relationship is strong enough that he can come to me to glean that wisdom. But if that isn’t the case and wisdom is being found elsewhere, then so be it.
There is one other idea concerning the map that I am looking into. Given the fact that my wife is an artist, I have spoken with her about creating a second map that will be given to our son on his 13th birthday. This map will have our son’s birthplace, as well as the cities he has lived in up to his 13th birthday. It will be drawn in an old world rendering. Another idea I have been kicking around is that of designing a family shield or ring to be made and given to him on his birthday. I will say more about this should it develop into something more than an idea.