There is something else in the generational admonishment in the commandment before us. Parents teach in many ways that they never realize. Over the years I have realized that the personality of my sons to a certain extent mirrors my manliness in those crucial years when they were six to nine. It is downright scary at times to remember the transition of my own personality in those crucial years when I was finding my spiritual bearings and a church to which I could give my energy. Eight years old for a young man at least seems to be the most impressionable year in the development of manliness.
Young men learn how to be men from watching their fathers.
Learned behavior that is not socially nor biblically appropriate can hang around for years until they grow spiritually enough to put away the attitudes and habits of two lifetimes. Also, habits of good character can be imitated as well. At least hard work, integrity and honesty seem to have been passed along. The year that we made the transition there occurred an event in Sunday School which I could not ignore. In Sunday school, the teacher hurried through the lesson about Moses, Aaron and the golden calf.