My son

My son is soon to be officially a teenager. For the past six years or so, I've been discipling, primarily through the Royal Rangers program... a faith-based scout-like organization.

Of course, it's the responsibility of every father that professes to follow Jesus to disciple his children. But back when he was five, I didn't quite understand that. As I took charge of reaching and teaching him, my relationship with him dramatically changed. I remember early on, I'd ask him to do something, and he'd fight back, drag his feet, try to prove he wasn't who I thought he was.

Today, he is growing into a man. The Ranger program is a great vehicle for working with him. Early on, we established that almost every day, we work on something together. Regardless of the program, it's the time spent with him that means everything. In the beginning, I remember taking him to the Arlington police center and checking out the 911 call center and the jail. We went on some day camps, like Granbury's dinosaur park. Later, the work got more challenging, but by now he'd established a stronger work ethic. It served him well through some of the harder merits, like the Gold Bible merit-- he worked on that for parts of four years.

He's getting real close to earning his Gold Medal of Achievement, which is the Ranger's equivalent to the Eagle Scout. The hardest merit left to conquer is the Bachelor's merit. And one thing he has to do for it, is set a goal to purchase something, have a savings plan for it and a way to earn money towards it.

He decided he wanted an iPad. An interesting fad that has started is "survival bracelets." These are cool, hip bracelets braided from paracord. You get stuck on a deserted island, you can take it apart and lash together shelter, make snares, or build a raft to get off (for the really, really long bracelets). So we worked together on setting up a website for people to order these hip, cool, stylish yet practical bracelets. (If you want to check it out, click here, www.s-films.com/cssb).

Then, this past week, he got another opportunity for awesome growth (and me too). While on a camping trip with some family, he was given the permission and responsibility of driving a four wheeler. Which he then accidentally ran up along side a car, scratching the paint and taking off the side mirror. I'm going to pay half. And he's going to pay the other half. So between jobs I hire him for around the house, and "cobra stitched survival bracelets", through hard work, he'll learn some cool responsibility.