The Boy Becomes A Man

I just finished reading a book called Wild at Heart. It's all about men and what they need to be men. I felt this was an important read for me since I am not a man, married to a man and raising six potential men. This read came at just the right time as I was confronted with a biggie this morning. In the book we are told that men need three things: A battle to fight, a beauty to rescue and an adventure to live. I have one boy who is working very hard on becoming a man and is doing a mighty fine job. Kyle will be 12 next month and he has done a lot of growing over the last year. Yes, I mean size wise (he wears a size 11 in men's shoes now), but I mean all the other ways as well. This summer he went with dad and the scouts on a week long 50 mile hike, he went with our county commissioner to the Utah Republican convention, he took on the project of mowing a sweet lady's lawn in our ward each week (and this isn't a city lawn...it's huge) and he has worked along side dad with all of the projects dad has had going this summer (and with Lyndon there is no half way). So back to this morning....My son woke up and informed me that he had one more thing to do to get his Star rank in scouting. He said he needed to hike 20 miles and that he would be doing that today. I immediately said no way and began to list all of the reasons why that was not a good idea (I would list them for you, but you are mom's you know what I am talking about). He calmly told me to check with dad, that this was all worked out. You know the movie Father of the Bride where she tells her dad she is getting married and he pictures this little 6 year old in pig tails? This is what I see sometimes with my big boy. I saw it this morning, a little freckle faced 6 year old who loves Power Rangers saying, "Mom I am hiking 20 miles today alone I should be home around dinner time." Lyndon keeps telling me that this is how a boy becomes a man and my greatest wish is that these boys become like that man so I need to trust him. I put gobs of sunscreen on him and plopped that hat on him that I bought for him when he was 6 (so big then, barely covered his head this time), and tried to act cool. He has the IPOD and was looking forward to a day of listening to Glen Beck's Book of Common Sense and conference talks. He will stop half way in Annabella and grandma will make him lunch and fuss over him and then he will come home. I feel myself wanting to give that lecture so many times given to me that used to make me so mad, "love them to pieces because before you know it they will be grown up and you will remember this as the best time of your life."