Millennials who feel they lack some basic life skills can now take “adulting” classes, which are expanding across the country.  The classes teach life skills such as  cooking, budgeting, and time management.  CBS New York reports  young adults are signing up for lessons in person and online.

Experts say millennials are behind on these skills because many haven’t left their childhood homes.  The U.S. Census Bureau reported in 2015,  34 % of Americans between 18 and 34 still lived with a parent.  That’s compared to just 26% in 2005.  “It’s more common than living with roommates and more common than living with a spouse,” demographer Jonathan Vespa said.

Adulting is a verb mean, “to carry out one or more of the duties and responsibilities expected of fully developed individuals, for example,  paying off a credit card debt.  It can be exclusively used by those who adult less that 50% of the time.”  In other words, adulting is something you choose to do, rather then become an adult. There is even an “adulting” calendar to reward grown-ups with stickers for completing mundane tasks.

I’m in my late 70’s.  I have worked  intentionally on a Godly masculine lifestyle, but I  have never heard the word “adult” used as a verb to describe becoming a man.  But evidently Millennials  are familiar with the word. I wonder if their is a man reading this blog, who has chosen “adulting” as  lifestyle, rather then becoming a man.  God is looking for full time men, not those choosing selective adulting.

Manhood is a gift bestowed by our creator.  Again we go back to the order of creation.  “So God created man in his own image, in the image of God he created him; male and female he created them”‘ (Gen. 1:27). This is not a selective process of choosing how to “adult” as a man.

Becoming a adult male does not come natural.  “Adulting” is really taking the path of least resistance.  Glenn Stanton in an article entitled, “Manhood is not natural” made this observation about men.  “Womanhood is natural.  Manhood is not…..As a behavior, manhood must be learned, proven and earned. Maleness just happens, but manhood does not.”

Maleness is biological, but manhood is a developed character quality.  “When manhood is not formed and cultivated,” Stanton maintains, “males fail to mature, resulting in the ‘perpetual adolescence’ or ‘failure to launch’ that plagues our culture.” Much of the blame for young men living in perpetual adolescence rests with  fathers.  A young man’s manhood is first learned from his father.  But if the father himself has not been affirmed in is own masculinity, many young men will go into their adult years feeling abandoned and fatherless.

Here’s some simple advice for fathers struggling with being a dad to a son.  First, surrender your life the Lord Jesus.  Allow him to bring you to your heavenly Father so that you may receive your affirmation as a man.  Second, be intentional about your fathering. You are the exemplar.  Your son has only one father.  Third, let your son know that becoming a man is difficult. Teach him to be “tough and tender” in the midst of the accusations of “toxic masculinity.  Finally, show your enthusiasm and intentionality about being a man.  Let your son know that Jesus and His kingdom are worth dying for.  Their is no room for compromise in being a godly man in the midst of all the confusion of our day.