3 years ago several friends and I covenanted together to help each other raise our sons into men. Having seen a lot of boys in men’s bodies over the years, we realized that a boy becoming a man just doesn’t happen automatically. So we decided that a part of the process would be celebrating specific age milestones with our boys. The first age milestone is 13. This year 3 of our boys turned 13.
At 13 we give the boys a compass with a definition of manhood engraved on it. The idea is that just as a compass helps point you in the right direction, so the manhood definition helps point our boys in the right direction of what it means to be a man.
Robert Lewis in his book Raising a Modern Day Knight has been extremely influential and helpful.