Boys Are in Crisis. Fight Back with Truth, with Jason Davis and Robert Wolgemuth

Do you long to see the next generation of boys become men who stand up for God’s truth? Grounded is here to help! In this episode, Erin and Jason Davis share about their new book, Lies Boys Believe: And the Epic Quest for Truth, and they discuss the truth that your sons and grandsons need in order to thrive and grow into men of God. 

Connect with Jason 

Instagram: @jmda.vis

Episode Notes

• Lies Boys Believe book by Erin and Jason Davis: https://www.reviveourhearts.com/books/lies-boys-believe/
• “Lies Boys Believe: And the Epic Quest for Truth” video: https://www.reviveourhearts.com/videos/lies-boys-believe-and-the-epic-quest-for-truth-eri/
• “God Gave Me Six Boys!” blog post by Brenda Riggs: https://www.reviveourhearts.com/blog/god-gave-me-six-boys/

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Erin Davis: “Boys in Crisis” Schools Are Failing Young Men,” “We’re Missing a Major Mental Health Crisis: Teen Boys Are Struggling Too,” “The Crisis of Men and Boys.” Those are just a few of the headlines at the top of the fold everywhere from the New York Times to Newsweek. It's time for the Church to pay attention. I'm Erin Davis, and you are watching a live episode of Grounded.

Dannah Gresh: I am Dannah Gresh. And with those headlines, well, not a lot of hope. But I'll tell you what, we do have hope, and today we're here to dole some out. We also have perspective. 

You know, Erin, everywhere I go with my True Girl ministry for eight- to twelve-year-old girls, I get asked the same question. What about my son? What about my son? What about my son? 

Erin: I believe it.

Dannah: I don't think it's just because we're ministering to their daughters. I think it's because we're living in a time when masculinity itself, strong masculinity, the kind the Bible talks about and encourages, has been labeled toxic? 

Erin: Yeah. 

Dannah: Yeah, our boys are struggling. 

Erin: They are. 

Dannah: Our boys are like a self-fulfilling prophecy that they do that so many times that their little hearts believe it. 

Erin: I mean, in all of those headlines I read, the word “crisis” appeared in all of them. And it is at a crisis point. I've got four reasons to care. Here they are: Eli age fifteen, Noble age thirteen, Judah age ten, and Ezra age five. Those are my boys, and they are growing up in a world where they are encouraged to be anything but men who live according to God's design and God's Word.

I can see it as I'm watching them grow up, and they're growing up in a home with Christian parents who affirm God's Word and in a Bible believing church. And still, it's really evident that their very identity is under attack. I see it in the ways things are marketed toward them. I see it in the ways that even education is set up. And at times I see it even in the church. So, we want to sound the alarm about all of that this morning.

Dannah: Here's one of the things I've noticed about what's happening in the Church. Erin, a lot of the resources, a lot of the special events, a lot of the books, a lot of the just attention is for our girls, rescuing our daughters, but there's not so much out there for the boys. Have you noticed that?

Erin: I’m so grateful. I'm so grateful that we have tea parties for our little girls to remind them that they are daughters of the true King of kings. I'm so grateful that we're aware of the impact that a misshapen identity can have on a young woman's life. But I do see that we're not sending resources our boys’ way. We're not having events for them. We're not having Bible studies to get them grounded in their identity in Christ. 

I would add the word “crisis” to the crisis headlines I've already shared. It's important for us to wake up and pay attention to the impact that's happening on the shaping of our boys’ hearts and our boys’ minds and their sense of identity. 

Dannah: Yeah, and today is that wake-up call. About eight or nine months ago, I was in Missouri with Erin and her husband Jason. We had a conversation about this crisis, and it was riveting. And today we want to come and continue that conversation that started back in Erin's hometown. It contains a bit of a, I guess, a prize inside because we're about to make a really cool announcement.

An announcement that I made on my social media last week, and women went crazy. It answers the question: What about the boys? And when we get grounded in God's Word today, Erin's gonna give us a challenge from Genesis 1.

Erin: Yeah, and the guests today are among our favorites. The guest you're about to meet is my favorite person in the entire world. So, I'm not overselling it. I'm not over-hyping me. He is my favorite person. And Robert Wolgemuth is with us—another one of my favorite people. And so, this is an episode you're going to want to share.

I'm going to fess up. Dannah and I both are feeling very under the weather. We both are fighting infections. We are here. We don't feel great, but we're here because this episode is so important. We didn't want to punt on it. And we know you're gonna feel the same way. 

So please hit that share button at a minimum. But I would encourage you to go further than that. Maybe do it now, and maybe do it at the end of the episode. You know, somebody's raising a boy. You probably know somebody raising several boys, grandparenting boys, maybe leading that boy Sunday school class at your church. They need this episode, it's going to be the shot in the arm of encouragement that they need, and also going to ground them in some truths that boys need to hear. 

So, we count on you. We're going to show up, even if we don't feel like it. And we count on you to share the episode because the Church needs to ask, what are we teaching about God's design for manhood? Who are we teaching it to? Are we teaching it to our boys?

Dannah: Yep. I'm so glad we're asking a question. Now, this is when we usually roll into the good news with our friend Portia Collins. She is in the wings waiting. But I have some big news and anticipated news. 

15:27 - Grounded with God's People (Jason and Erin Davis)

So, we're going to roll right into being grounded with God's people. Let me start by saying this, for nearly two decades Lies Women Believe and the Truth That Sets Them Free by Nancy DeMoss Wolgemuth has been used by God to set well over one million, get that number one million plus women free from lies. I get chills when I think about it. And then in about 2007, she asked me to co-write with her Lies Young Women believe for Teen Girls, because so many of those women said the lies were planted when I was younger. And then I wrote Lies Girls Believe for tween girls. And then Lies Men Believe written by Nancy's Boaz, as she calls him, Robert Wolgemuth. And since then, everyone's been asking, “Yeah, but what about the boys?” 

Well, as I said, I posted an answer to that question. Are you ready for the good news? Here it is: our own Erin Davis along with her beau Jason have written Lies Boys Believe and the Epic Quest for Truth. I've got a birthday candle to light. Erin Davis, get on in here. Jason, happy book birthday. 

Jason Davis: It’s exciting. 

Erin: Thank you. We’re pretty excited.

Dannah: We are so excited. Hey, we had a great conversation about this project in March. It stirred my heart. I just want to revisit some of those questions, and I have a few new ones. As you guys raise your sons and think about the other boys you know who are growing up right now, what concerns you?

Jason: Well . . .

Erin: Everything.

Jason: Yeah, our answers would probably be different. I would say it'd be easier to answer what does not concern me when raising children of any kind, but especially for us raising boys. It's a scary place to send your children out into and hope they do well. And everybody's under attack, but especially our young men.

Erin: Yeah, I mean, Jason and I are raising four who we hope to be godly, strong, brave, Jesus-loving boys. And those are things that our culture no longer affirms, and in some circles, really comes out against that a strong man is something that should be feared. 

We don't feel that way at all or that a man who stands by his convictions is somehow an aggressor. That's not true. 

And so, we want our boys to be everything God designed them to be. We want them to be very bold in their faith for Jesus. We want them to be strong in all the right ways. We want them to be family oriented. And yet, we recognize that we live in a culture that really emasculates men at every turn. As much as we're trying to pour into them and get them under good teaching and give them good resources, we know there's kind of a tidal wave of deception. We just don't want them to be put under by it. So, there's a lot to be concerned about. 

Jason: But there's a lot to be excited about too. 

Dannah: Yeah, well, what are you excited about? Tell me. 

Jason: Oh,I'm excited about what a generation of young men who truly seek the Lord, raise their children the way they should, to seek the Lord, care for their wives the way they should, lead the way they should in their communities and churches, the kind of impact that they could have on our communities and our society and in the globe.

Erin: Yeah, our oldest is almost sixteen. And so, we are starting to see it is possible. He's starting to come into his own and His own love for Christ. And we're starting to see his own love for Scripture, his own love for the Church, his own understanding of ministry, and watching him step into that is really, really exciting. 

And he's not the only one. All around the world God is raising up young men as He does in every generation, to carry the torch, should He tarry and not come back in this generation. So there's a lot to be excited about, too.

Jason: There's hope.

Erin: There’s always hope.

Dannah: Yep, there is hope. My son Robbie is thirty-four. Can you believe that? 

Erin: No! I remember Robbie when he was my boy’s age. He was a little guy. 

Dannah: I know! An itty-bitty guy. Well he's thirty-four. And this summer he and his best friend started waking up at 5 a.m. to exercise and pray for their wives and their children. 

Erin: Wow. 

Dannah: That's the hope. That's the exciting thing. That's just the tip of the iceberg of those two good men.

Jason: Well, I didn’t even know there was a 5 a.m.

Erin: I know! That is new information. 

Dannah: You know, that's Jesus, right?

Jason: Yes. 

Dannah: What do our sons and grandsons need to thrive and grow into that kind of a man of God?

Jason: The Bible. A deep connection with Jesus that the Bible will teach them about. And really, it's not necessary, the Lord can do what the Lord will do, but other men in their life that are living out their faith day to day impacting that generation.

Erin: Well, that's the Titus 2 model. I mean, we often talk about women discipling women, which is in Titus 2, but before that is men discipling men. And so, I also think that's why they need the Bible—the unvarnished Bible. I mean, there are stories in the Bible that are difficult to understand, there are men in the Bible that are difficult to understand their story. But there are examples of men that vanquish the foe, that pushed back against evil. I think we need to avoid sanitizing that for our sons.

Jason: Yeah, I think that a lot of times, and it's important to not give too much information as a child is young. But as a boy grows up, he needs to see the unvarnished version of our biblical heroes.

We at church just finished a series on Samson. 

Erin: Yeah. 

Jason: They cleaned off the varnish and talked about his humanity and the sinfulness. But the fact that God was able to use him anyway, that's really engaging. For young men to know that even though they are human, they are lost apart from the blood of Jesus Christ, that God can use them if they're a willing participant.

Erin: And spoiler alert, we're going to talk in Grounded in God's Word about specifically how as moms we can champion their design because I think sometimes we get it wrong.

Dannah: We have this vision as moms that discipling our sons is going to look a lot like discipling our daughters—clean and neat and organized and tea parties and is still going to be very calm and collected.

Erin: Right. I say to my friends who have daughters, your daughter does puzzles, right? They smile at me. I'm like, my child never did a puzzle, never, never colored quietly at the table. It never happened. 

Dannah: Well, my husband says a lot of discipleship of our son happened in front of the football screen, and I discounted that for a long time. Or that it happened eating wings.

Erin: Yeah, Bob Gresh taught me about wing nights that he had with Robbie maybe once a week?

Dannah: Once a week, every Monday night, faithfully at 8 p.m. And there was no missing it. If he was in a board meeting, he excused himself at a quarter to eight. It was a standing date. What I want to say is if you're a woman, let your husband off the hook if he is discipling son and it doesn't look like the way you would do it. 

Erin: Amen.

Dannah: And it shouldn’t. Hey you guys say a lot about . . . 

Erin: You wouldn't say wing night, but what would you say about male/boy discipleship?

Jason: Well, we do a lot of squirrel hunting, fishing, chopping wood, running laps, things like that. 

Erin: Yes, our boys run a lot of laps.

Dannah: Yeah, it sounds dirty, getting messy. And just like boys, I love it. 

Erin: Yeah. 

Dannah: You guys in the book you write about ten lies. How did you arrive at those?

Erin: Well, we're very blessed to stand on the shoulders of Nancy DeMoss Wolgemuth, Robert Wolgemuth, who you're gonna hear from in a minute, and you and I know Bob's role in those books. There's a “Lies legacy” that we were handed the baton and did not want to fumble it. We really pulled a lot of the lies from Robert’s book, Lies Men Believe, but also, we're raising four boys, which actually just reveals to us how much we don't know. We don't proclaim to be experts.

Jason: We are not experts.

Erin: Jason helps in our boys Sunday school class at times; we are around a lot of boys. And our boys played a really critical role in developing this book. They had a lot to say, “Yeah, that lie rings true or no, it doesn't.” Lies can be hard to discern. So, there was a lot of praying and talking and leaning on. 

Jason: The hard part was really narrowing down so the book didn't look like encyclopedia set. 

Erin: Yeah, I showed my stepdad a copy. And he said, “I wonder how many of those lies I believed.” And then as he was walking away, he said, “Probably all of them.” And I think he's probably right.

Dannah: Yeah.

Erin: They probably are so insidious and sneaky, because the deceiver is so sneaky, that there's a temptation toward all of them.

Dannah: Yeah. One of the lies is, “I'm good enough.” Where's that one come from? And how is it impacting our sons?

Erin: I think there's a temptation as Christian parents to unintentionally communicate to our boys that God cares very much about you being a good boy. We have one of our sons who is just kind of naturally a good boy; he makes the right choices.

Jason: They're all good boys. 

Erin: They are all good boys. But one of them would be in the kind of traditional good boy category—makes good grades, doesn’t get in trouble at school. And it can be hard for a boy like that, often the firstborn, that just does the right thing, to not understand their need for Jesus. But they need Jesus just as much as the rest of us.

Jason: There is no one good, not one.

Erin: According to Scripture. 

Jason: For us to encounter Jesus through repentance and understand that we need His blood for the atonement of our sin, we have to understand that we're not good. 

Erin: Yeah. 

Jason: So, we felt that that was a foundational lie. 

Dannah: Very true. Another lie, “following Jesus is boring.” If that's a lie, what's God's truth?

Jason: Really, following Jesus is an adventure. And like all of the adventures that we read about or watch, it's full of twists and turns and peaks and valleys and challenges and smooth sailing and, and the whole, the whole gamut. 

Erin: Yeah.

Jason: And, you know, I don't know, anybody who gets excited about watching a movie where the hero doesn't face any challenges or hardship, or there's not really a mountain to climb. So just watching him drink tea and watch sunsets is not an exciting movie. Boys want deep down to have challenges to overcome, and to have battles to fight. We see that over and over in the stories in the Bible, which are all pointing us toward Jesus. 

Erin: Yeah. I mean, going to church is really important, and praying is really important. But we don't want to give our boys the impression that that's the Christian life. The Christian life is a freefall in the sense it's a surrender to God's will over your will. 

It's a call into the Great Commission to win the lost. It means God's plans trump your own plans. And so, it really is an adventure. It doesn't mean that all of our boys will be sent to some far-flung place as missionaries, they might. But it will mean that their life is not their own. They will become less and Jesus will become more, and that is a grand adventure.

Dannah: I love that. You guys wrote a companion book to go with Lies Boys Believe and the Epic Quest for Truth. Tell us about that. 

Erin: We did. It's a parent's guide. When you wrote Lies Girls Believe, you wrote a Mom's Guide. But something that we know is part of the boy’s crisis is that a lot of boys are living without their dads. I grew up without my dad. So, I know that reality. And so, we didn't want to just write a dad's guide, but we certainly hope that whoever is parenting our boys will walk in this journey beside them, and it's just going to help you engage in conversation. 

We acknowledge those conversations might happen in the car on the way to basketball practice. They might happen late at night if your kid’s getting into the tween years. So, it's not open up your Bibles and study verse by verse.

Jason: Sit here and answer these three questions. It contributes to an environment where a parent can engage with their child about the content that they're reading in the book, and it starts a conversation.

Dannah: That’s so important. 

Erin: You might build a slingshot together. Who knows what you'll do. But we hope that as you and your boys are spending time together, you'll be able to talk about what matters. We're trying to figure out how to do that with our own sons. We don't do it perfectly. But it's a guide.

Dannah: I love it. All right, where can people get a copy of Lies Boys Believe and the parent’s companion book?

Erin: ReviveOurHearts.com. We hope that's where you'll head. It's the gift of any amount starting on November 7. So, when you give a gift of any amount to Revive Our Hearts, we'll send you the book and the parent’s guide. So, we hope that you'll head over there and get your copy.

Dannah: Love it. Well, happy book birthday, my friends. Guys, run, don't walk tomorrow to get a copy by making a gift of any amount of support the wonderful ministry of Revive Our Hearts and will thank you by sending you a copy of these wonderful books. 

All right, Portia girl come on in here because we have more good news today, and another great guest, don’t we?

Portia: Okay, keep me hanging out in the wings as well, because I want to be in on celebration. And look, I've got my makeshift confetti to celebrate. 

Dannah: Yay! Book birthday confetti, I love it. 

29:55 - Good News (Robert Wolgemuth)

Portia: Yes, to celebrate the new book. I'm so excited. Today's a great day. And wow, God has not seen fit to give me a son. Yet. That doesn't mean that I don't have influence over boys in my world. And specifically, I want to raise Emmy, my baby girl, to recognize boys who will become men who stand up for God's truth. So, the good news today is that one poor man can have a profound influence on the next generation of boys. And here to help me tell that good news is one of my most favorite people, Robert Wolgemuth. Welcome back to Grounded Robert.

Robert Wolgemuth: Oh, thank you, Portia. I've eavesdropped on this conversation with the Davises. I could not be more grateful that they picked up the baton and wrote this book for boys. So yeah, my heart is full of gratitude for the chance to do this. I'm grateful to be the author of Lies Men Believe, which is a story in and of itself. So, thank you. I'm grateful to be on board.

Portia: It's kind of like Lies Men Believe has a son book, now.

Robert: It had a baby boy. 

Portia: Yes. Okay, Robert, tell us about your mom. What kind of woman was she?

Robert: She was a godly woman. She was a woman who was incredibly tender. I've thought about this a lot. My dad showed me how to do stuff, and my mother confirmed to me that I could. She was a cheerleader. She was a person who said my whole life, “I believe in you. I know that you can do this.” I rested in that truth my whole life until the Lord took her in 2010. This woman had that kind of impact on my life. 

So, when I married Nancy, about a year into our marriage she said, “Would you be willing to write Lies Men Believe as a companion to Lies Women Believe,” which I was honored to do. And in writing that I thought, You know, there needs to be a boy's book. But the Lord gave me daughters. And so, we began to search, and we couldn't do better than Erin and Jason Davis in writing this. Why? Because they're on the front lines, four of them on the frontline with their own sons. 

So, what a great day to celebrate all of this, especially Lies Boys Believe.

Portia: Yes. I want to dig in a little bit more specifically, because I mean, there are Grounded sisters watching. They're wanting to know how to pour into their boys. And so from your perspective, how did your mom's influence shape your faith?

Robert: Okay, my mother loved God's Word. When she would catch me or my brother doing something that wasn't pleasing to her, she would say, you ready for this? She would say, “All right, boys. Finally, brethren, there it is, Finally, brethren, whatsoever things are true.” She would quote Philippians 4:8 to us word for word. We heard that I'm gonna guess a thousand times. There is a checklist in this verse that every young man needs to embrace. And it's true, lovely, just, pure. It's the list is right here. Philippians 4:8. 

So I'd encourage the women who are listening right now to just take a look at that and say, “Okay, this is my checklist for my son.” In fact, it says right there at the beginning, Finally, brethren, boys, young men, here is what you need to know about growing up to be a man of God.

Portia: I love it. I know that we've got women who are listening to this podcast or watching us live today, who are probably discouraged. It doesn't feel like anything they're saying is getting through to the men, the boys in their lives. So, I want to ask, how would you encourage that woman?

Robert: I’d talked to him, give him a safe place to open his heart. It's gonna be easy to find fault with how he's living decisions. Be a listening ear. Be tender to your son. 

You know, my friends loved me for one reason, because they'd come to my house, and my mother would hug them at the door. It didn't matter what they looked like or smelled like or how they talked, my mother embrace them. She loved them; she was an angel. 

And so, I would start there. Be affirming of your son, be affirming of his person. It's very easy for us to be influenced by conduct. Let's start with who he is, not what he does. And again, the encouragement that you can provide for your son by being his cheerleader. I don't mean like a mindless person who just yells and screams and says, good boy. But as I said, my mother was grounded in God's Word. And Philippians 4:8, was our checklist, even as young boys, we knew that list by heart. And as a man, now I am so grateful that list is still lasting. Well, it's still true. It's still something that guides me. So, I'm grateful for a mother, who led a son into God's word like that. 

Portia: Amen, amen, amen. So okay, we know, you wrote the book Lies Men Believe. I know that you know the importance of this, but can you just take a minute and explain to us what are the stakes when our boys and when our young men don't know how to stand for truth?

Robert: You have to be an influence that's as strong as the stuff that he's getting outside the doors of your home or on his phone. Don't be threatened by what you don't know, or what you suspect. Be encouraged, the great the best defense is a good offense. 

So take truth, like I've just quoted in Philippians 4:8. 

Jason, I love Jason Davis. Jason talked about getting stories of men in God's Word into your son. And there are some wonderful examples of how to be a godly man. There are also some examples, like he quoted about, the man Samson in the Old Testament, that you can learn by saying, “This is what I want you to do, or this is what I don't want you to do.” So, God's Word is filled with stories of men who followed Christ, who were obedient, who lived lives that were satisfying to them at the end of the day. That's where you go. God's Word is filled with incredible stories like that.

Portia: I can always count on Robert to just bring us some good what I like to call, good old wisdom.

Robert: Old, thanks. Good old wisdom. 

Portia: Not O-L-D just ol’ you know I’m country.

Robert, can you take a minute before I let you go here? Would you mind just praying for this generation of boys.

Robert: I'd be happy to. 

Father in heaven, I pray right now for moms and sisters and grandmothers and aunts and friends and women who are hearing this and while we're talking they're picturing boys—boys they know, boys that are in their homes or in their families, extended families. 

And Father, I pray that like a laser beam You’d help these women to focus truth into these men. Encourage them, help them to know that by way of Your Holy Spirit. Give them the right things to say, the right things to do, the right times to speak truth, the right times for correction, all of those things. 

So, I pray for the boys represented by the women who are hearing my voice right now. Thank You for the confidence we have in Your Word, the dependability of Your Word. And we pray for these boys. 

I thank You for Jason and Erin Davis, for their hard work and faithfulness in writing this book and the companion guide. I pray that You'll use this like a light to shine in dark places, and that boys all over the world will come to know You as Savior and decide to follow You as disciples. Lord, we pray that with all our hearts, we thank You in Jesus’ name. Amen. 

Portia: In Jesus’ name, amen. Thank you so much for being with us today. Robert, it was so good to see your face.

Robert: Thank you, Portia. I love you, Friend.

Portia: Love you too. 

All right, I think the best way to segue here . . . Robert said his mother was a woman grounded in God's Word. And guess what? I think that's the perfect transition for where we're headed. Now, Erin Davis is gonna get us grounded in God's Word.

40:34 - Grounded in God's Word (with Erin)

Erin: Portia, my cheeks hurt from smiling so big. Man, I could not be prouder of my man, and I love hearing from Robert, love the confetti, and love the candle. What an amazing, amazing day. I'm grateful to be a part of it. And yeah, let's get grounded in God's Word. 

Now, you're not going to have to go far in your Bible. I'm just going to point us to a single verse in Genesis 1. But before we get there, here's something that you may or may not know. I heard it years ago, and I've never forgotten it. When a soldier lies dying on the battlefield, do you know who he asked for most often? It's usually not the girl who stole his heart. It's not even the medic could relieve his pain. A common report from those medics throughout the history of combat is that the fallen most often asked for their mothers. 

Even Jesus as He hung on the cross, He was thinking about His own mama. We see that in John chapter 19. And if you're a woman, raising sons, or a woman, grandparenting grandsons, or a woman of influence over boys in your own church, I know that probably seems hard to believe. 

Our sons are not like us. They often seem like alien creatures, and we seem the same to them. We're different. God made us different. 

We are living in a culture that is trying to erase those differences and is trying to turn all of that upside down. We've got to run to God's Word to see what's true. Those differences are good even though it doesn't seem like it all the time, and it certainly doesn't seem like it all the time, for me. 

Your influence is very strong over your boy. That's part of why I wanted Robert to be a part of this conversation, because I've heard him talk about his mom, and the influence that she continues to have now that she's in glory. I hold on to those for dear life because that doesn't always seem true, as I'm raising my own. 

So, knowing that your influence over the boys in your world is stronger than it seems, let me encourage you this morning to steward it wisely. I want to point us to Genesis chapter 1:27. It's probably a verse you already know well, but let me read it to you again. 

So God created man in his own image,
   in the image of God he created him;
   male and female he created them.

Now, it seems maybe like an innocuous first but there is so much there. We can never get too far from those Genesis 1 principles. God created mankind. As the Creator, He gets to decide who we are. He created men and women distinctly. He created both males and females in His image. And God's design is good. 

It's time for some real talk mama, mom to mom. Because it is possible. In fact, I think even likely for us to affirm Genesis 1 in the public sphere and live functionally opposed to it in our homes. It's possible for us to shake our heads at the toxic masculinity message when we see it in commercials and subtly communicated at our dinner tables. 

I’ll avoid giving a checklist or talking in generalities here, because that so rarely helps move the needle in this conversation. But here's the bottom line. Your son is made by God differently than you. He is made differently than your daughters. He is made differently than the girls he may go to church or school with. And he likely sees the world differently than you do. He probably communicates differently than you do. He may have an interest you’d never dream up. 

And as you parent, and as you teach, and as you correct, and as you, shepherd, and as you guide, the question I would give to you and to myself this morning is, “Do you celebrate that God made him a boy so that he can glorify God with his little life?” That's why he's made in the image of God, so that he can showcase God to others. That's his identity. That's his purpose. He needs to do it uniquely as the way God made him to be. 

Do you celebrate that God made him a boy? And then in being a boy, he can glorify God as a boy in subtle and sometimes not so subtle ways. Do you unintentionally communicate that he should shape his boy ethos into an increasingly girl-shaped world? 

Do you celebrate and applaud the unique way God created boys and men to showcase His glory in their own way? 

Scripture and history provide us long lists of men God raised up to fight against evil, and their God-given strength is a gift. Their God-given manhood is a gift. I hope life doesn't take my sons to the battlefield. I don't know if it will or not. But they will each have to fight against the lies of the enemy. I've seen it already in their lives.

I want to use my influence, which I know I have, even though it doesn't seem like it, to encourage them to be the men God made them to be. I don't want to encourage them to be the kind of person He made me to be, because He made me a woman distinctly different from them. 

So, that's my simple encouragement to you, mama, grandmama, woman of influence, live out Genesis 127, and affirming that God made women and men different. He did that for the sake of His glory. I know that's what you want to. We just have to pay attention to the ways that we talk, the things that we affirm, the things that we criticize. It's an ongoing challenge. But when we're grounded in God's Word, I believe He could give us the perspective to see that the way He made them as good. 

Speaking of our boys, I can't wait to show you this short clip, you're gonna see four of my favorite faces. Let's roll it

Video for Lies Boys Believe:

Jason: No little boy grows up and dreams of having a boring life. They dream of having grand adventures.

Erin: There's so many adventure stories in Scripture. Let's just tell them and let them know that following God is such an adventure.

Jason: What does God require of you? To walk humbly. To love mercy and to do justice. How does a man walk humbly without strength in the form of self-control? How does he love mercy? To respond to insult with peace? There's nothing boring about doing justice. That's the kind of life men want to live.

Erin: Let's fast forward twenty years, those who are boys now have become the leaders. They lead in business; they lead in education; they lead in government. They are husbands. They are fathers, pastors, elders, ready and willing to stand at their post and fight back against the relentless attacks of the evil one. When I look into the faces of my four sons, Eli, Noble, Judah, and Ezra, I believe it's possible. I pray that God would raise them up as a generation of men committed to fighting lies and standing up for what's true.

Portia: No one told me that I was gonna need my tissues today. Oh, my heart. Oh, my heart. How precious is that y'all? Oh, and it gets me even more excited because Lies Boy Believe drops tomorrow. I'm going to encourage you to get it for the boy in your world whether it's your grandson or your son or your nephew. I encourage you to get it. Okay, just in time, it’s a perfect Christmas gift. We love to buy the toys and all the other stuff. But this is something that will be really good and rich for your boys. 

This will tackle lies like you heard Erin and Jason walk through. It tackles lies like: following Jesus is boring. Or, reading the Bible is it really for me? Or, no one needs to know about my sin. And so much more so many things that are thrown at our boys. This book engages with it. 

Now, here's an interesting thing. It's written as a fiction story, but it is packed with rich truth and your boy will love it. It is going to get him grounded in God's Word. 

There's also as you heard, the mention earlier, a parent's guide that will help you to have conversations with your boy about what he's learning. Okay, so I really don't think you can beat this, you can't you cannot beat this. 

So, starting tomorrow, when you give a gift of any amount to the Revive Our Hearts ministry, we will send you Lies Boys Believe and the parents guide. Once again, you can't beat this guys. So, if you love a boy, you want to pay attention. 

Pay attention to what's going on. Here's a way that you can pay attention. Check out the Revive Our Hearts blog this week because it is boy week. And all of our posts are about God's good design for boys and the fight to point them to God's truth. So today we're gonna be starting off with a post from Brenda Riggs. It's titled “God Gave Me Six Boys.” Whoa, six boys. We're gonna drop a link to that in the chat. And in the episode notes, so that you can check it out.

I’m so excited guys.

Dannah: Me too. I think Brenda Riggs has a sports team of some type. What would that be? 

Erin: She should. 

Dannah: Is it basketball, with one on the bench?

Portia: Is it basketball? I think with basketball, you only need five.

Dannah: I know that. But she has a backup. They can rotate. 

Portia: A sub.

Dannah: Oh, yeah, speaking of sports, my husband's having a very good day. Because apparently if you have a husband and he is into sports. Which let me say this. One of the moms that commented about Lies Boys Believe Erin, people are so excited. And one of them said my son is not into sports. He has a hard time finding books and things that are exciting for him to get into. And I thought well, this is the perfect one, isn't it? Because yes, Jason Davis is not a sports guy.

Erin: No, he's not. They go into a mine; they go to cattle drive; they climb, may eat tacos, there’s burping in the van. I can't remember all the things they do, but it’s not a heavily sports book. 

Dannah: We shall not say that onGrounded. But we're gonna have to bleep that out. It's gonna be beep. 

Erin: Breaking news, boys burp.

Dannah: Boys do burp. 

Portia: Girls do too. 

Erin: That’s true. 

Dannah: Well, but I do want to say that if you're married to a man who loves sports, yesterday, something very epic happened. The Eagles beat the Cowboys. 

Erin: That's your man's team. 

Dannah: That is my man's team and my man's dream right there. 

Erin: Okay. 

Dannah: People are also super excited about Robert. I want to say this in terms of hope. Tamra writes, “My sons are twenty-six and twenty, both military. They Skype Bible study with three older guys than them on Saturday mornings. Right now they're studying Lies Men Believe.” 

Erin: Praise God.

Dannah: That's what you've got in the future if you plant the right seeds right now. 

Erin: Yeah, praise God. That's exciting to think about. Well, what great day. 

Dannah: It was a great day. Happy book birthday, Erin. 

Erin: Can I just throw in one more teaser? This is probably my favorite page in the whole book. Not sure it'll show, but that's Jason and I in cartoon version, waving goodbye to your boys and sending them out as boys ready to stand for God's truth. It’s exciting to finally see that day is here. 

Dannah: We have cartoons of you and Jason and me and Nancy. We are going to have to get one of Robert Wolgemuth. 

Erin: Yes, we do. We need our own cartoon program. 

Dannah: We need a Robert cartoon. It's coming. I'm working on it. I'm on it.

Erin: Okay, I like it right. 

Dannah: Friends, join us next week. I am so excited about our program. If you have ever felt lonely in church, you wanna tune in because we have the hope and perspective you need. And you've felt lonely before, Erin. I see you raising your hand. Yeah, me too. We have the hope and perspective you need, and we have the remedy. Next week, on Grounded. Please join us next week for hope together on Grounded. 

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