Boys Will Be Boys

Boys Will Be Boys

There’s a young boy here with five barley loaves and two fish. But what good is that with this huge crowd?

John 6:9

A horse-drawn wagon rolls by with three boys sitting on the bench seat. They’re wearing homemade clothes and wide-brimmed straw hats. Fishing poles of various lengths stick out the back of the wagon. This scene could have happened two hundred years ago, one hundred, fifty, but in Amish communities all over the United States it’s commonplace today. For Amish boys, summer means helping Dad, fishing, doing chores, climbing trees, and lying under apple trees when the work is done.

“Boys will be boys,” people say, but Amish boys are different from English boys today. Amish boys do not have video games, and every person in an Amish family, including the children, is considered a productive member. Before an Amish boy can head to the fishing hole, there are chores to be done. Morning chores include making beds, feeding farm animals, and collecting eggs. Amish boys learn how to use farm equipment and tools.

In the evening, after the chores are done, Amish boys will spend time making wooden toys, playing board games, or sitting on the porch. Because the sun is in the sky longer, Amish children stay up later in the summer. In the winter months bedtime comes soon after dark because the Amish rely on lantern light instead of electricity. Since Amish children go to school only through eighth grade and then join the workforce, they tend to savor childhood.

Similar to the young boy who offered his basket of lunch to Jesus’ disciples, Amish boys are asked to give only one thing—whatever they have available.

What do you expect from the boys in your life? Do you expect them to be trouble or to be helpful? Do you expect them to be draining or productive? Or all of the above? Children tend to live up to our expectations.

Today encourage a boy in your life to “give what he has.” As you do, you’ll help prepare him to serve his family and God.

Dear heavenly Father, thank You for Your work in the boys in my life. Thank You for asking us to give only what we have.