Three things every boy needs

You don't have to spend much time around me to know that I can not stand how we as a country are raising our boys. We are losing real men in our society, because we have raised our boys to be soft. We won't even let our son's get hurt anymore. Don't get me wrong I don't want to see my son or anyone else be injured, but that isn't the same as getting hurt. There is nothing wrong with a young boy learning how to deal with a bully, I know I will get all kinds of comments about how bullies are bad. I guess I am out of my time then, because when I was younger dealing with a bully was just a lesson you learned on your road to being a man. A boy would learn that when he made a stand against a bully, the bully would back down, but sometimes you had to prove yourself to him and you did that by defending yourself. If you don't believe what I am saying, just watch the news tonight and see how many "men" will not stand their ground on anything. (Congress is a good place to start) The bully is just like the game of football. A coach I had in high school would say "Football is a great way to learn about life, it is the only game that you know you are going to be knocked down in, and know you will have to get back up and keep going."

There are three things every boy needs so he can grow into a man.

The first thing is he needs a dog. Any breed of dog will work, but a hunting dog is best. I always loved in the book Where the Red Fern Grows, when Billy Coleman was dieing to have his own hunting dog and his Daddy told  him they couldn't afford hunting dogs, but a nearby family's collie had just had pups and they may be able to get one of them. Billy answered and said "I don't want no old collie dog, I want HOUNDS!" A boy will learn from a pet, but he will learn more from a hunting dog. I know you are sitting there asking yourself, "What in the world can a boy learn from a dog?"

Well I'm glad you asked, first thing is he learns is how to love something. That little puppy will steal his heart and at the same will teach your son how to love on the same level that you love him. I can't stand when an adult says their dog is like a part of the family, but I love to see a boy have that connection with his pup. That little pup will look to your son for everything, from his food, water, shelter to his education. When ever I see a man that acts like he can't take care of his children it makes me want to slap him upside of the head. You see as your son learns to take care of dog, he will be laying the foundation to know how to take care of his own children someday. There is nothing that will make a young boy (or full grown man) swell with pride, and nearly bust at the seams then seeing his dog do what he trained him to do. It takes several months to years to "finish" a hunting dog, and when you see your pup that you spent all of that time working with, doing what he was trained to do, and putting every ounce of heart he has into the chase... well I don't have the vocabulary to put that feeling into words, but you will know it when you see it in your son's eyes.

Yes, that little dog will teach your son love, patience, wisdom and discipline. All of which are stepping stones to being a man.

The second thing he needs is a gun. He needs his own gun for one lesson that he will need for the rest of his life. That lesson is how to handle power. There is nothing on Earth, except the Word of God that puts more power into a person's hands then a gun. The ability to handle power is an ability that is lost on the men of our day, from Washington and Wall St. all the way down to Main St., we have millions of people that can not handle power of any amount. I have sold thousands of guns over the years while working at different gun shops and one piece of advice I always gave was to let your kids shoot cans of Coke, and different targets that will explode. I used to tell parents it was fun for them to make the mess, but they were able to see what a bullet did when it hit something. Shooting paper only makes a clean hole, and a young boy doesn't see the power he is in control of.

The gun's next lesson is the 3 P's. It has the power to protect, provide, and preserve. The gun will teach your son ability to protect, because one day Mama, Daddy and his teachers aren't going to be there, and it will be him that people are looking to for their protection. It teaches provisions, I always taught my son, that no matter what happens in life if he had his gun, some seeds and some dirt he would not go hungry. One thing I have learned in all of these years with a gun in my hand, is that food is just a trigger pull away. It will also teach him how to preserve, being raised with a gun he will learn the value and importance of our Constitution, and our Bill of Rights. He will learn that the one factor that preserves those pieces of our history and heritage, that makes us Americans is his gun.

The third and most important thing he needs is a Daddy. His Daddy is the glue that binds the lessons he learned from the dog and gun, deep into his soul. His daddy is the most important teaching tool he has in his life. I have heard people talk about their marriage ending, but not the duties of being a father. Well, your first duty as a father is to teach your son how to keep a marriage together, if he doesn't learn from you; you can bet the world won't teach him. On the day I got married, my Daddy gave me $100 and told me to stay married as long as he does. If my wife and I live another 40 years I will succeed in his challenge.

Your son will learn how to handle every lesson in life by observing you, the dog and gun will teach lessons, but you will teach how to handle those lessons. Without you, he will have to turn to the world to be taught how to be a man and all you have to do is turn on the Disney channel to figure out we can not have the world teaching those lessons.