Hal Young's Blog, page 71
January 20, 2010
Cool Headed Dad
Wow. A dramatic story from Haiti – a father of two, trapped and seriously injured in a collapsed building, kept calm, treated his own wounds, improvised solutions to immediate problems, then wrote bloodstained letters of Christian counsel to his sons. He was pulled from the wreckage after 65 hours.
Writing the notes to his wife and children wasn't easy, the deeply religious man said.
"Boy, I cried," he admitted. "Obviously, no one wants to come to that point. I also didn't want to just get...
January 19, 2010
Sgt. York Legacy Returns to Tennessee
The Knoxville News-Sentinel reports that the last surviving German machine gun captured by Sgt. Alvin York in World War I has been discovered in the attic of a Massachusetts public library.
…York pulled off one of the great feats of any combat soldier of any time. He single-handedly annihilated a German machine gun battalion on Oct. 8, 1918, killing 25 German soldiers and capturing 132 enemy soldiers. He seized more than 30 machine guns, which had been killing Americans with extreme accuracy...
January 18, 2010
"I recommend you get this book if you have sons," says Tina Brown
I was given this book, Raising Real Men, by the authors Hal & Melanie Young in exchange for my honest review. As I have been reading this book, I have been so very encouraged to allow my boys to take risks and adventures and not be over "motherly" in protecting them. As I was reading chapter 3, I was asking myself, "Do my boys even try to be adventurous or have I sqashed that tendency in them?" Well, I got to thinking. Yes. They do! Wes immediately came to mind. He is 11 and he likes to ride...
January 17, 2010
Gangster Risks Death to Do The Right Thing
In Charlotte this week, a long-time member of the Salvadoran MS-13 gang turned evidence against his former friends in federal court, saying he knew he risked being killed but did it because of his mother and brothers.
According to the story in the Charlotte Observer, the 21-year-old said he had joined the gang as a young teen and took part in as many as 40 robberies, but no murders.
The young gang member decided to help police bring down his MS-13 gang in Charlotte after his mother found out...
January 16, 2010
The Love of a Father and Mother in Haiti
This morning in family devotions we were talking about the love of God for His people. Explaining it to our five year old, I said, "Do you know how much your Daddy loves you?" "Oh yes!" she replied. "Does your Daddy take care of you and keep you safe?" She heartily agreed. "Well, God loves us even more than our Daddies and Mommies love us!" This was hard for her to believe. We had to explain that we loved her all we possibly could, but that we were only human, still sinners, and God loves us ...
January 15, 2010
Want to Ask Questions about Raising your Boys?
Hal & Melanie Young, authors of Raising Real Men, are the guests on Homeschooling with Heart, The Old Schoolhouse Magazine's Facebook discussion group, this week. We'd love to answer your questions, talk about your sons, discuss marriage and building family unity and more! Join us there today!
Aviators and Silk Scarves
I always wondered why aviators in those old open cockpit plans wore silk scarves. Was it just that they looked so dashing? It certainly couldn't be to keep them warm, could it? This article proposes some reasonable ideas for the practice, but I'm convinced I've figured it out.
A few years ago, we took our family to China and visited the China National Silk Museum. Visiting the museum made us decide to buy a silk comforter to take home as a souvenir. We were thinking, it'll be nice and cool in ...
January 14, 2010
"If you only read one book about raising boys…"
A new review this morning! From Wendy & her Lost Boys, by Angie, a mother of five boys:
As I mentioned last week, I've been reading Raising Real Men: Surviving, Teaching, and Appreciating Boys by Hal and Melanie Young. I finished it yesterday, and plan to read it again after Larry gets a turn. Put simply, if you only read one book about raising boys, this is the one I would recommend. I ordered my book through their website last year, although I see it is now available elsewhere.
Most authors o...
January 13, 2010
Husband to the Rescue
The husband of an aid worker in Haiti drove a hundred miles in answer to his wife's call for help, then dug her out from underneath a foot of concrete rubble. The Associated Press story is here.
One does wonder where the men in the neighborhood were. A hundred mile drive in Haiti isn't like I-95 from Richmond to Washington, either; the story says she was trapped for ten hours.
January 10, 2010
Why We Had a Party the Day After Hal Had Surgery :-)
Yesterday our teens took a 15 passenger van full of friends to a huge Christian concert in another city. Some of our friends were very concerned. Weren't we worried? Was that really safe? How would they manage the parking, the concert venue, staying together? Why did I let them do that when we were already having so much stress in the house?
They went with my blessing for the same reason we had a caroling party the day after Hal had a cancer biopsy. Satan has a modus operandi he frequently...
