The Importance of Positive Male Role Models for Young Men

Every boy is learning what it means to become a man, whether anyone intentionally teaches him or not.

He learns by watching his father, his family, his friends, his teachers, coaches, pastors, and the men around him. He also learns from the culture he consumes and the people he admires from a distance. Slowly, an understanding begins to form about what strength looks like, how a man treats other people, how he responds when he is angry, what he does when he fails, and what responsibilities he should be willing to carry.

This is one of the reasons positive male role models matter so deeply. A young man does not simply need someone to tell him what kind of man he should become. He benefits tremendously from being able to see it lived out in front of him.

For Majesty Outdoors, that gives mentorship a purpose much greater than teaching outdoor skills. It gives us an opportunity to place good men alongside young men and allow relationships to develop through shared experiences, responsibility, conversation, and faith.

Boys Need Men Worth Watching

Children are remarkably observant. They may not always listen to everything an adult tells them, but they notice far more than we sometimes realize.

A young man notices how an older man speaks to his wife. He notices whether he keeps his promises. He sees how he responds when someone disrespects him. He watches whether he helps when there is work to be done or waits for someone else to do it. He notices whether the man who talks about Jesus on Sunday lives as though Jesus matters on Monday.

That is why mentorship requires something from the mentor as well.

If we want young men to become patient, responsible, courageous, honest, and compassionate, then we have to take those virtues seriously in our own lives. We cannot reasonably ask a young man to practice self-control while refusing to control ourselves.

This does not require perfection. No mentor at Majesty Outdoors is expected to be a perfect man, because no such man exists apart from Christ. In some ways, allowing a young person to see how a mature Christian handles his imperfections can itself become an important lesson.

There is strength in admitting, “I was wrong.”

There is maturity in asking someone to forgive you.

There is integrity in keeping your word when keeping it becomes inconvenient.

A boy who witnesses those things is learning something about manhood that cannot easily be taught in a lecture.

Strength Is Good, but It Must Have a Purpose

Young men often have an instinctive attraction to strength. They want to become capable. They want to test themselves, compete, explore, build things, take risks, and discover what they can do.

Those instincts should not simply be dismissed. They can be cultivated and directed toward something good. Christianity does not teach men that strength itself is wicked. It teaches us what our strength is for.

Christ had authority, yet He washed His disciples' feet. He confronted wrongdoing, yet showed extraordinary compassion toward broken people. He possessed power beyond anything we can comprehend, yet willingly submitted Himself to the Father's will.

The Christian understanding of strength, therefore, cannot simply be the ability to dominate another person. Strength reaches its highest purpose when it becomes something that can be used in service of another.

A strong man should make the people entrusted to his care safer, not more afraid. A capable man should be willing to use his abilities to serve. A courageous man should be willing to stand for what is right even when doing so costs him something. A man who has authority should understand that authority brings responsibility with it.

These are difficult lessons, and most of us spend a lifetime learning them. That is precisely why young men need older men willing to walk beside them.

Responsibility Tells a Young Man That He Is Needed

One of the easiest mistakes we can make with young people is giving them nothing meaningful to carry. Out of love, adults naturally want to protect children from unnecessary hardship. That is good. But protection and preparation are not the same thing. Eventually, every young person must learn that other people will depend upon them.

The outdoors provides countless small opportunities to begin teaching that lesson.

Someone needs to carry equipment. Someone needs to help prepare the boat. Someone needs to clean up afterward. A younger child might need help learning something an older child already understands.

These responsibilities may seem insignificant to an adult, but they communicate something important to a young man: you are capable of contributing, and what you do affects the people around you.

As he matures, the weight he is capable of carrying should mature with him.

Eventually, manhood asks much larger questions. Can you remain faithful when nobody is watching? Can your family depend on you? Can you control yourself when you are angry? Can you sacrifice something you want because another person needs you? Can you tell the truth when lying would protect your reputation?

Those questions cannot be answered by appearance, physical strength, money, or status. They are questions of character.

Jesus Is the Standard

If Majesty Outdoors is going to talk about helping boys become good men, we eventually have to answer the question: good according to whom?

For Christians, the answer cannot simply be whatever our culture currently considers successful.

Our model is Jesus Christ.

That immediately challenges many shallow definitions of masculinity. Jesus was strong enough to confront hypocrisy and gentle enough to welcome children. He could speak with authority and still kneel to serve. He showed compassion without abandoning truth. He endured suffering without allowing suffering to turn Him cruel.

Most importantly, Christ's life was characterized by obedience to the Father and sacrificial love for others.

When Scripture tells husbands to love their wives, the example given is Christ giving Himself for His Church. Christian manhood therefore cannot be separated from sacrifice.

The question is not merely whether a man is strong. The question is what he is willing to use that strength for.

Becoming the Kind of Man Someone Else Can Follow

There is a sobering part of becoming a man: eventually, someone younger may begin watching you. That is true for fathers, older brothers, coaches, pastors, mentors, and sometimes young men who never deliberately asked to become examples.

The young men in Majesty Outdoors will eventually grow older. Some will become husbands. Some will become fathers. Some will lead businesses, churches, classrooms, teams, or communities. Nearly all of them will eventually find themselves in a position where another person depends upon their character.

We cannot know what responsibilities God will place in their hands.

What we can do is take seriously the time we have with them now.

We can teach them how to work. We can give them responsibility. We can allow them to fail without convincing them that failure defines them. We can correct them without humiliating them. We can listen to them. We can pray with them and for them. Most importantly, we can continually point them beyond ourselves toward Jesus Christ.

A good mentor should ultimately hope that the young man following his example learns to follow Christ more closely than he ever followed the mentor.

That is the kind of legacy worth leaving.