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Where Have All The Cowboys Gone? {and a GIVEAWAY!}

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Mothering

Where are the men who open doors?

Where are the boys who play hard and get dirty?

Where are the dads who teach their boys what it means to be men?

Where are all the cowboys?

You know, the manly men?

The guys who do heroic things by day and tell their children heroic stories by night.

I’ve met moms who’s husbands are too busy to be cowboys.  I’ve met dads who don’t know how to be cowboys.  And I’ve met single moms who want their sons to be cowboys, but can’t find any decent role models.

My answer?

Don’t despair!

There are still manly influences available to those who are searching, those who want to learn, and those who haven’t any men leading their household.

Where are these influences?

1.  The Bible. God’s Word is full of manly men.  No, they weren’t perfect, but they were heroic!  Read these stories.  Encourage your husbands.  Relate them to your sons and their every day lives.
Here’s a list to get you started:
Adam (Genesis 3)
Noah (Genesis 6)
Abraham (Genesis 12)
Isaac (Genesis 22)
Jacob (Genesis 32)
Joseph (Genesis 39)
Moses (Exodus 3)
Joshua (Joshua 1)
Gideon (Judges 7)
Samson (Judges 16)
Samuel (1 Samuel 3)
Jonathan (1 Samuel 14)
David (2 Samuel 11)
Solomon (1 Kings 3)
Elijah (1 Kings 19)
Josiah (2 Chronicles 34)
Nehemiah (Nehemiah 4)
Job (Job 1)
Daniel (Daniel 6)
Joseph (Matthew 1)
John the Baptist (Matthew 3)
The Centurion (Matthew 8 )
The Samaritan (Luke 10)
Nicodemus (John 3)
Saul/Paul (Acts 9)
Silas (Acts 16)
Timothy (1 Timothy 6)
Hall of Faith (Hebrews 11)

2.  Books for boys and men. I love Vision Forum for this very reason!  Here are just a few books that encourage men to be men and boys to be men.

3.  Online resources and sermons. I thoroughly enjoy sermons from men like Voddie Baucham.  Often you can find great sermons on SermonAudio.com.

What I hope you come away from this post understanding is that you can find godly, manly influences in places like books and videos and the like.  Introduce your sons to the men of the Bible.  Introduce them to godly men who preach and write.  Introduce them to historical and fictional godly men.

And then let them be men.

For us mamas, it is sometimes difficult to let our menfolk be manly because it often runs totally contrary to our personalities.  There is a buffalo on my wall.  There is war memorabilia all over my house.  My boys play rough and rowdy.  And I have learned to accept it.

Now to help you in your quest for raising men (or whatever else you might like to do with the money!)…

Reader Interactions

Comments

  1. Renata says

    I love, love, love vision forum & although I’m blessed to be married to a very courteous man, I still would love to get some of the products you suggested!
    What a fun giveaway!
    Blessings
    Renata:)

    Reply

  3. The Momma @ The Straightened Path says

    I love Vision Forum for that reason too! It’s hard for me to know how to encourage manly behavior that is also age appropriate. (My 5 year old wants a bow & arrow.) I would love to see a series about this as I have 3 boys so far. I am also enjoying the book (so far) by Meg Meeker called Boys Should Be Boys.

    Reply

  6. Sara says

    I used to worry about raising my daughters in today’s world but now I worry more about my son. I would love to get the missionary book.

    Reply

  8. Jennifer says

    Raising boys is a challenge. I am a cub scout leader and I love it but it nags in the back of my mind that it should be a man being the cub scout leader. For our adventure of picking up trash around the neighborhood, I went to Lowes to look for work gloves. They had large and a few medium and child sized pink Dora gloves. I got so mad! I’m trying to turn boys into good men and the world is fighting me on it.

    Reply

  10. Nancy Mosley says

    Just yesterday I was speaking with speaking with a dear friend about this very subject. Thanks for the chance to win the gift certificate to Vision Forum.

    Reply

  13. jay quiverfull families says

    I literally just got off the phone talking to grandma about how we’re buying higher quality costumes for Christmas this year that will stand up and last for a long time for multiple kids to be able to use over the years—-from Vision Forum of course. they have a great variety and I’m sure they are very durable compared to the cheap stuf we’ve bought from stores before.

    and their costumes are quite manly so it’s going to be fun seeing the kids wear them.

    Reply

  14. Sonja says

    We love Vision Forum…my son would enjoy that survival book set! Yes, raising boys is Soooo different than raising girls. As it should be!
    Sonja

    Reply

  15. Tandie Lacquement says

    I am very thankful to be married to a “manly cowboy” who spends time with our boys being rough and tough, yet learning to respect others. They are often outdoors building things, fixing things or just being… boys!

    Reply

  21. Kayla says

    I love the idea of something like the conversation ideas for dads to have with their sons. I always feel like I am saying to my husband…you should go talk to him about ______. I wonder if he would be more excited about those times, if he could see (from a man’s perspective) how valuable it could be for my sons and even the world!

    Reply

  26. Mae says

    Thanks for hosting this giveaway! I would give the gift certificate to my husband, and ask him to get me “She Shall be Called Woman” by Victoria Botkin for Christmas!

    Reply

  28. Crissyanna says

    We’ve only been blessed with daughters thus far, however, I want them to marry manly cowboy men. I pray that their future husband’s parents are raising them to embrace their masculinity as we are raising our daughters to embrace their femininity.

    Reply

  30. Heather says

    We are on Vision Forum’s catalog list and my son LOVES looking through the magazine at all the cowboy stuff. He’s quite the cowboy already and is fortunate to have a great example in his dad. We would use the money for their hunting/cowboy toys.

    Reply

  31. alissa says

    I love vision forum. I am getting ready to purchase some of the building kits and a rubber band gun for my son, and It would be wonderful to have the gift certificate to help out!

    Reply

  35. Amanda says

    My husband and I just had a heart to heart last night about this topic. I was telling him how intimidated I was to raise boys. I want them to be men of God- bold and yet gentle at the same time. As a woman, I feel at a loss sometimes. I even thought of ordering some of the Vision Forum books! So I can easily say these books would be a blessing!!

    Reply

  36. Erin Hritz says

    I would love to win this giveaway. I would probably buy some books for my daughter to read to encourage biblical womanhood.

    Reply

  38. Blessed5X says

    My husband has been drooling over the family vision and boyhood items in the new VF catalog (we have 4 boys + 1 girl)!! I would use the certificate for a Christmas gift for him… He works so hard for our family and really strives to ‘break the cycle’ that both of our families have fallen into. I am so proud of my hubby!

    Reply

  39. Shannon Wallace says

    I love Vision Forum, and have purchsed several items from them via mail, and at their retail shop since we live in the SA area. My son LOVES Jonathan Park, the audio series! I would buy Evan a set with the gift certificate. 🙂 I think I will also buy a copy of The Adventure of Missionary Heroism too!

    Reply

  40. Sara Ann says

    As a single mom I get a lot of smack for letting my boys be boys. They play and get dirty and those around me shake their heads thinking I should raise them better. Yet when we are in town they pretty much are great. I would love to be able to get some material to help my boys become men. I sometimes feel so lost in raising them or what to do – I didn’t realize this was out there. Thanks for sharing.

    Reply

  41. Cindy Woods says

    I love Vision Forum, especially the Jonathan Park series. A $25 gift certificate would enable us to purchase some other great series like what I seen above in your message..thanks for all you do..I love reading your blog.

    Reply

  44. Honey says

    I guess the buffalo in your living room, kinda goes along with the bow and arrows hanging in my bedroom. I tried to decorate and make it look nice, and the next thing I know, My husband hangs up a bow! I didn’t say anything, but it annoys me everytime I look at it. But he needs space too. And it would be worse to have a man who wasn’t “manly” right? Thanks for helping me develop this new viewpoint.

    Reply

  45. Lisa J. says

    Yes! We need good, manly gentlemen in this world! I could do all sorts of things with a $25 g. cert. to Vision Forum. I’d probably start with buying something for my boys.

    Reply

  46. Michelle says

    I’m thinking the Endurance book as a family read aloud and Men Wanted for Hazardous Journey for a traveling CD. That should take care of the $25, but, my 3 boys treat the VF catalog the same way my brother and I used to treat the Sears Catalog at Christmastime! We just got it in the mail a few days ago and all 3 of them have already marked it up with Christmas & Birthday shopping ideas! VF is our FAVORITE!!!

    Reply

  53. Becky says

    So many great items at Vision Forum. I always have a list of things I would like. Probably would look at the Raising sons products. And Father to Son would be something we would love.
    Becky
    PS Thanks for the chance

    Reply

  57. Teresa says

    I would love the boyhood adventure items as we have many items from them but none of these yet. Vision Forum has such great things for young girls as well.

    Reply

  58. Danielle says

    Thank you for this post and resources. I believe I will share it with my pastor. The men at our church are doing a study on the new movie Courageous and this fits in well!

    Reply

  60. deanna says

    my husband and I read a book called Boy’s Passage, Man’s Journey last year and this past weekend had a right of passage ceremony for our nearly 14 year old son. The book is great at explaining that a boy needs to be declared a man by other men and allowed to start participating in manly activities or he will never know when it is he truely becomes a man. A fabulous book and concept. It also points out that it’s still a journey, you haven’t arrived at manhood at 14 but you are now accepted into the man’s culture and are growing into a godly man each day. My son has really embraced it and in the last few weeks really upped his responsibility level all on his own. The other men who participated started out thinking it was wierd because no one had ever heard of this, but it truely affected all the men involved. It was powerful for them and I pray God uses that experience to start a revolution of bringing back MEN!

    Reply

  62. Susan Holt says

    I have been eyeing Vision Forum for sometime but have no discretionary money to spend, so this would be GREAT! Btw I have 3 sons and definately have had to learn to let boys be boys!

    Reply

  63. Christopher L Martin says

    Thanks for this great post! I am interested in the Vision Forums books and media for the family. I also really like the idea of having books related to heroes of the Bible that are for young readers. Talk about putting good books in the hands of our children!

    Thanks for this and your blog!
    Chris

    Reply

  69. Rachel Blom says

    Just got the new catalog and I’ve been looking at getting The Wilderness Survival Guide, The Camper’s Knife, and a few other things for my boys for Christmas so I would use the gift certificate towards that 🙂

    Reply

  71. Leah says

    I love this post. It is all too common these days for men to not be role models for their sons and with the gift certificate I would purchase one maybe two of the books you suggested for my husband for his birthday.

    Reply

  73. Christal says

    I would love to win this. I would get some of the books you have recommended here. They all sound so good and I think it would do my husband and son a lot of good. Thanks.

    Reply

  75. Rebekah B. says

    What a wonderful giveaway. Vision Forum is where we go for most all of our curriculum unless we find it at a used curriculum sale. Their materials cannot be matched. We buy all of our Christmas gifts from them as well- not toys, but rich books for all!

    Reply

  79. Bonnie says

    I would definately buy one of the videos for my husband to watch with our boys! I am just beginning to see the importance of this…we have 4 girls and now 2 boys, so it has taken me a while to learn how to bring these boys up, and Vision Forum has some amazing helps!

    Reply

  80. Emily Dykstra says

    What would I do? STOCK UP so I can read them now and apply them when my little man gets older and also share the knowledge with others who have older boys!

    Reply

  82. Jennifer W. says

    This giveaway abd blog post is just what I need right now. I have been blessed with 3 sons. Beibng a “girlie” girl, I sometimes don’t know what to do with them. Great post!

    Reply

  83. Tina O'Connor says

    First, I’d ask our manly dad to match the prize money, Second, I’d have to let the boys vote on something. I love all the replicas and I don’t know that I’d be able to pick just one thing.

    Reply

  85. Michelle says

    If I win, I would buy the Missionary Heroism book and if there is any left over, I would put it toward the new Queen of the Home book for me.

    Reply

  90. Rhonda Meller says

    I have 3 boys and they are foreign to me as a GIRL!! So, I’d use the $25 to find some resources to help me understand my boys!

    Reply

  91. Katy says

    This is so helpful. My 8 year old boy is surrounded by his three sisters all day and daddy travels for work every other week. I’m always looking for more manly influences in his life. Thanks:)

    Reply

  93. Tiffany DeOs says

    There is so much I want at Vision Forum it would be super hard to decide what to do with it. Since I have four kids I’m not sure I would spend it on them. I’d probably get an encouraging book for me or a DVD for the whole family.

    Reply

  94. Jamie says

    I would use the giftcard towards Christmas presents. My kids have already looked through the new Vision Forum catalog several times and have made a wish list of items they want. I’m happy with all their wholesome choices!

    Reply

  95. Josi says

    I love Vision Forum. My husband and son did the Father & Son video series together last year. I listen, and re-listen to their audio teachings. If I won I think I would put it towards their new Amazon video production. It’s one of the things on my “Vision Forum Wish List!” 🙂

    Reply

  98. Tracy says

    I have 3 sons and one on the way, they love the Vision Forum catalouge that comes in the mail. They love to go through and mark the items they want, but don’t always get. I love recieving your daily emails they are very uplifting and encouraging.

    Reply

  100. Daphney Cordeiro says

    I love Vision Forum! This would be a great prize my family would certainly & greatfully make great use of!

    Reply

  101. Heather says

    I have 5 boys and they have been begging for several things out of the vision forum catalog! We would most likely get some spy gear or weapons of some sort. 🙂

    Reply

  103. Stephanie says

    It’s a hard choice, but right now I’m thinking I need good boys books (we’ve spent the last few years stocking up on good girl books), so I’m leaning toward Sir Knight of the Splendid Way or Buddy and Me.

    Reply

  106. Erin says

    As a mom of 4 boys, I am always looking for ways to help them become manly men. So many times society tries to make our sons behave like girls, whether it be in school, church or on the playground. Thanks for this post!

    Reply

  107. Rebecca says

    Thanks for the post. I have two boys (so far) and am thankful for their Daddy’s leading and the resources available to help teach them to be godly men.

    Reply

  108. kelli says

    I love your blog, very encouraging! I would use the gift certificate to by some manly books or dvds. I love Vision Forum too!

    Reply

  112. Sonja says

    We are always buying things from Vision Forum, so a $25 gift card would really come in handy! My boys spend hours pouring over the “boys adventure catalog” and making birthday & Christmas wish lists.
    Thanks for making this available!

    Reply

  113. Aaron says

    Oh, Vision Forum! What an exciting giveaway! I’d use it to continue to encourage our boys to become the Godly, valiant men they were created to be.

    Reply

  114. CW says

    My boys are always looking for books with projects for them to build. Also my girls want some sewing projects. Vision Forum has a nice selection of both.

    Reply

  115. RG says

    We have just been introduced to vision forum in our family, but have enjoyed the JM Kremp’s Adventure catalog for boys in recent years. Thank you so much for the giveaway! I think my son would want the bow and arrow set.

    Reply

  119. Heather says

    Raising 3 boys is hard work– raising 3 boys into Godly men is even harder! Can’t wait to learn more about Vision Forum!

    Reply

  124. Suzanne Pace says

    just sat down at the computer to order my boys some “army” legos for Christmas…
    If I won the gift certificate… I would probably order and audio or video that my husband and our boys would be encouraged by.
    Thanks!!

    Reply

  136. Emily says

    I love vision forum! so many neat and wonderful things for parents of boys and girls! I love the book selections, but I know my boys love the outdoor stuff and my daughter loves anything related to horses.

    Reply

  137. Jennifer Freeman says

    I have 2 boys that love to be all boy! Thankfully they are blessed with a dad that is a cowboy kind of man. But, we can always use extra resources. I love Vision Forum, and there are so many things on there that I would love to have!

    Reply

  140. shelly foster says

    I am trying to raise a manly child of God. I adopted my son at birth as a single woman. I knew it would be challenging but it has been such a blessing. We love Vision Forum and as he is turning four able to look at more things from there! It would be such a blessing if we won it. God Bless 🙂 The Foster Family

    Reply

  141. shelly foster says

    THANK YOU for the list I am always looking at ways to be raising him as a manly man being a single mom!! Love your resources!! Especially that they are Godly resources! I just love Vision Forum — he is three almost four so we are getting started with items from there! But i find a LOT for “Mommy” in there as well…. God Bless

    Reply

  143. Shellie Deckard says

    I love the encouragement for boys to true men! If I were to win I would put it toward purchasing the book ‘Thoughts For Young Men’.

    Thank you!

    Reply

  144. Sarah Winson says

    There are so many wonderful items at Vision Forum, I think I would definitely get books on Character building for boys or girls! Thanks for this exciting giveaway!
    Sarah

    Reply

  147. Ellie Miller says

    Good article…I have 3 cowboys of my own…1 big and 2 little! If I win I’m buying something for my big cowboy since his 30th birthday is in December! I’ve had my eye on quite a few things actually! 🙂

    Reply

  152. Elvira Clay says

    I just heard about Vision Forum this past weekend and have not had a chance to check it out. I’d love this gift certificate to become more acquainted with their materials:o)

    Reply

  153. jay quiverfull families says

    151 comments. I wish my real estate blog still had that many comments when I write.

    For all you quiverfull minded or large families consider registering your family at the ArrowCollectors Quiverfull and Large Families Directory. We have almost 300 families so far and one can only see the password protected directory if they are approved by answering questions and my manual approval. In other words it’s private by design.

    So many neat testimonials in there too for your edification.

    http://arrowcollectors.com

    Reply

  154. Jacki says

    I looked at sooo many things when I checked out Vision Forum! I would probably have to have my husband pick out what we would get 🙂

    Reply

  158. Jennifer Newsom says

    There are many books from Vision Forum I have been looking at! My son especially likes the ones for Fathers/Sons! I would buy books!

    Reply

  161. Cindy D. says

    We love the Vision Forum…we always spend so much time at their table at our homeschool convention. But I would probably have to let my husband decide what to buy – definitely something for our three boys.

    Cindy

    Reply

  162. Dawn Kilgore says

    I would use the money to buy some audio cds or books its a toss up there is so much on my wish list from Vision Forum.

    Reply

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