Today I sat in our worship service and watched my youngest son.  He was perched in the lap of one of my close friend's husbands.  Mike has really taken AJ into his heart.  Although he enjoys each of my boys, Mike has delighted in things unique to AJ, appreciating the energy, the extroverted personality, and the imagination of my little guy.  The day I took AJ to the emergency room with his broken arm, Mike went with me.  And every week, AJ sits in his lap at church (a relief to me as I am able to pay more attention to the sermon!). 

Each of the boys has one or more men in their lives who fill holes left there from the absence of a dad who lives with us in the home.  Josh has a number of men from church and scouts who fill different varying needs.  Stephen has his best friend's dad, who is just there letting Stephen be a boy--run wild with weapons, talking about gross stuff, or burning things (in the bonfire, not the house!). 

So today I was overwhelmed with gratitude for the men God has put in my boys' lives.  I love the idea of one really great guy who takes one of my little boys under his wings and disciples him by meeting with him weekly to do a Bible study and calls him to see how he's doing.  But that's just not the way God has seen fit to do it.  Instead he puts my boys around real men, living out their faith with their families and lets the boys see what godly men living real lives looks like.  I'm so thankful that with all these men have to do, they are willing to include my kids in their lives.  They are a blessing to me and to the boys.

So tonight, I'm thanking God for them.