Parenthood
Our Lion Language
“Be strong and courageous…”
— Joshua 1:9 (NIV)
All or Nothing
There is no middle setting in this house. When the boys enter a room, they don’t drift into it— they take it over. When they feel something, it doesn’t simmer quietly beneath the surface. It announces itself. Joy is explosive. Frustration is immediate. Competition is intense. Silence only comes after total exhaustion.
They don’t do half-effort.
They don’t do neutral.
It’s full sprint or collapse.
Full laughter or full meltdown.
Full confidence or full disappointment.
It can be overwhelming.
But it’s honest.
———
The Lion Instinct
I’ve started to think of it as lion language. Not aggression— intensity. A kind of raw, untamed energy that hasn’t yet learned its edges. What looks like chaos is often strength without direction. What sounds like defiance is sometimes just emotion without vocabulary.
They feel everything at full volume.
And part of parenting boys like this is realizing they’re not trying to dominate the room— they’re trying to understand it. They don’t yet know how to modulate power.
They only know how to release it.
Strength without guidance becomes destruction.
Strength with direction becomes leadership.
The difference is training.
———
Teaching the Roar
The goal isn’t to silence the lion. It’s to shape it. To teach when to roar and when to listen. When to defend and when to step back. When courage looks like standing firm— and when it looks like self-control.
Because power isn’t loudness.
And courage isn’t volume.
It’s restraint.
It’s learning that strength isn’t proven by how hard you push— but by how wisely you respond. That lesson takes repetition. It takes correction. It takes patience I don’t always feel like I have.
But if I crush the roar entirely, I risk crushing confidence with it.
So I guide it instead.
———
When It’s Hard to Handle
There are days the intensity drains me. Days when every small disagreement feels amplified. Days when I crave calm more than character formation. It would be easier to demand quiet than to teach control. Easier to shut it down than to slow it down.
But parenting isn’t about immediate peace.
It’s about long-term formation.
And formation is rarely quiet in the beginning. Growth is messy. Emotional maturity is learned through friction, not avoidance. The storm inside the house is often just strength learning where it belongs.
Even lions have to learn the terrain.
———
Raising Men, Not Moments
One day, the same energy that overwhelms this living room will anchor a family. The same volume that rattles the walls will defend what matters. The same boldness that frustrates me will stand firm under pressure
I’m not raising peaceful afternoons.
I’m raising men.
Men who must know how to carry strength without being ruled by it. Men who understand that power bows to God before it protects anything else. Men who know that courage includes humility.
And even lions, when trained well, know how to kneel.
Final Flame
Guide the Roar
Every child has a language.
Some whisper.
Some observe.
Some roar.
The goal isn’t perfection.
It’s direction.
And sometimes the loudest house is simply proof
that something strong is still being shaped.
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