As I walked through the aisles of Target one recent afternoon I passed a young couple holding hands and looking intently at what was before them on the shelf. The words “extra pleasure” and “ribbed” caught my eye right around the time I heard the young man say, “They’re expensive.”  He then gently but firmly lead his girlfriend away.

Turns out the same couple was in front of me in the check out line. They had a couple of sodas, and that was it. I put up my plastic divider and then unloaded from my shopping cart six pairs of Summer weight PJs for the boys, four new swim trunks, a swim shirt for my littlest guy, water bottles, toilet paper, a few cleaning supplies, tooth paste and floss, and a couple of water toys for our upcoming vacation. The couple walked out still holding hands long before my total came up. 296 dollars and 49 cents. I wanted to chase that boy down and show him my receipt… “and you think birth control is expensive?”

There are so many directions I could take today's post after that story. I could write a commentary on today’s sexually active youth, bemoan the cost of raising children, the challenge of being a good steward of our finances… but since that simple shopping scene I’ve thought of just one word. Prayer.

We need to keep praying for our boys. They are growing up into men right before our eyes. At 4, 6, and 8 mine already know they’ve got some awesome equipment down there!   At least one of them comes to my room with growing pains nearly each night. Their baby faces are hardening with sharper features, and they talk about whom their going to marry, where they’ll live and what they’ll do. (Today the stories all revolve around them opening a blacksmith store together to make ninja weapons.)  But more than far-fetched ninja dreams, they’re showing their manliness in tangible ways too.  All three of them have got some serious leg hair!

At 4 years old, Asher likely has more testosterone pumping through his little body than the other two put together! When he discovered his leg hair he exclaimed “I have whiskers on my legs and I like it. It’s awesome! I’m going to be a big man. The biggest man, ever!” Brody, however, cried, “I don’t want to be a man! I want to stay your baby forever!” Well as sweet as that may be to this Mama’s heart, it just isn’t going to happen. They are all going to grow up! And they’re going to have girlfriends and feel all sorts of crazy feelings run through their bodies when they lay their eyes on a “hot” girl for the first time.  It will happen. And so I continue to pray.

“How can a young man keep his way pure? By living according to your word” (Psalm 119:9)

I remember those late night nursing sessions, stroking my first-born’s hair and softly muttering scripture and prayers over him as he was nourished in more ways than one. Often my prayers would be for his purity, I’d pray for his future wife and that their courtship would be pure and fun.

"Let us not grow weary while doing good, for in due season we shall reap if we do not loose heart.”

So many of my posts include the above verse.

Let us not cease from praying for our children and their purity. Let us live pure lives before them, by God’s grace.  Let us give testimony to our children that God’s word is true, as we tuck his Word into their lives and challenge them to live according to it.  And let us speak the truth in love about what the world will tell them, and how the world will seduce them.  

While I didn't run out after that young couple, with my receipt flapping in the wind like a banner above my head, you can bet I'll run after these little men.  Figuratively.  Prayerfully.  

Let us not grow weary.  Let us pray...