Episode 115: How To Raise Your Son with Courage and Strength—with Rebekah Lovell
Of our five children, the oldest and the youngest are both boys—with a 17-year age gap between them! They’ve shown us that boys are a bit different to raise than girls, since they both seemed to thrive chaos, dirt, and taking big risks along the way.
But time and time again, we’ve recognized that our oldest son’s childhood looked much different from our youngest son’s. Our oldest grew up near dead-end roads and open fields where he could bike and explore all day with his friends. In comparison, our youngest has grown up in city neighborhoods where he’s had to stick closer to home.
With our second son, it can sometimes feel like we are learning how to parent for the very first time. Yet, for every challenge we encounter, we also know that boys all across the world (and their parents) are navigating the same obstacles. We find ourselves asking, “Is today’s culture of screens, schedules, and constant supervision what’s best for our sons?”
Our guest for this conversation has asked herself this same question. Rebekah Lovell is an author, speaker, and homeschool mom of two wild and noble boys. After homeschooling for a decade, she recognized the power of family culture and how it can help boys thrive by giving them an understanding of how they were wired.
In this episode, Rebekah shares:
- The unique way boys are wired
- How to encourage our sons toward leadership and independence
- Some of the best activities you can use to engage with how your son was created
- And much more!
We hope you enjoy this conversation!
Links:
- [BOOK] Boyhood Resurrected: Igniting a Revival of Daring and Heroic Boys
- The Outdoor Reading Club
- The Great Illustrated Classics
- [BOOK] The Adventure Bible
- [BOOK] Morning and Evening: A New Edition of the Classic Devotional Based on The Holy Bible
- Connect with Rebekah on her website, X, or Instagram
Our Takeaways:
1) Boys need to run and learn how to take risks. There’s something that God built into little boys that drives them to engage in competition. They need to test themselves to see if they can go faster, higher, and bigger than before. What may look like rambunctious play is actually developing a sense of how God created them to be. They will discover their talents and abilities as they engage with their world in bold new ways.
2) Avoid doing for them what they can do for themselves. This is especially true for the Moms. We can have the tendency to step in and offer our assistance even when our sons have displayed that they have the ability to do something themselves. For instance, we let our youngest get his very own saw recently, and while we were fearful of the potential dangers, it’s been an amazing tool to instill confidence in his abilities and creativity as he takes on various projects.
3) Regularly pray for your sons. We are big advocates of praying for all your children. As we raise young boys to lead their own families one day, it’s so important that we ask God for guidance, protection over them, and that they follow His plan for their lives. There are so many wonderful resources to cover our sons in prayer, and we’ve even written several prayer books of our own.
Meet Our Guest
Rebekah Lovell is an author, speaker, and homeschool mom of two wild and noble boys. After homeschooling for a decade, she recognized the power of family culture and how it can help boys thrive by understanding how they were wired. This revelation catapulted Rebekah to found The Outdoor Reading Club, an initiative to get kids reading and spending more time outside, as well as author her first book, Boyhood Resurrected. She lives in Northwest Georgia on a homestead with her husband, John, where their boys can run wild.
