01/06/2018
I have never done this before, but my devotional message yesterday contained a gem that our society today seems to have lost. I received a nice email from Lou, a wonderful friend, a wife, mother, woman that has worked a lifetime alongside her husband, and a lady in her 80s; I want to share it with you, along with my reply to her. Here is her email regarding my grandfather’s saying that I shared briefly in yesterday’s devotional “The Revelation of Answered Prayer.”
Lou writes:
“That must have been your WVA grandpa! Growing up, I heard over and over again, " a man is only as good as his word" & "his word is his bond." I never really knew what it meant, but I realized men had some sort of standard to meet in order to be respected. Mountain folk were hardliners ... No grey areas. You were either an alright person or a low-down one.”
And here is my reply to her...
“Lou,
I had both of those sayings drilled into me. I actually heard this from grandfathers on both sides. I think it was that generation of men; they believed in such things as truthfulness, courage, honor, and self sacrifice. Those kind of things don’t get much play these days, but are virtues worth reviving. These are attributes that lay a good foundation on which to build things like families, countries, economies, and faith. They are core principles that used to be taken for granted but are now scoffed at, and called old fashioned. Jesus exhibited them, and never really needed to call them out much... they were known by all men (even those who chose not to exhibit them), and their worth was taken for granted. These characteristics were the gold standard of manhood.
Rich”
So here are a few more of my thoughts on this subject...
I thought this exchange valuable enough to share this morning, and hoped it would help spark discussion, and a return of the gold standard of manhood. Our world could use it... and our faith could as well. You see, being a Christian man is not about a man becoming feminine... any more than it is about a Christian woman becoming manly. A man exhibiting meekness and humility is a man who has bridled the wild nature of himself... not a broken man who has lost that nature completely... it is about weaving Christ into the strength of manhood, and as for women, it is about folding Him into the loving nature of womanhood. It takes strong and loving people to serve God... and to enter into healthy relationships with one another.
Prayer:
Father I thank you for making us man and woman, and I thank you for the intrinsic nature of each. Holy Father, you give us characteristics that without you, and your Son Jesus Christ, would become our downfall, but you have tempered them through your Word and made them good and pleasing in your eyes. You have taken the raw material of our human nature and formed it into something of great value and beauty. When Cain slew Abel it was the result of his manly aggressiveness that had lost (or never found) its restraint and temper in you... just as the example of David not slaying Saul was manhood bound by the restraint you taught him. Holy Father, teach me to be a man, and my sisters to be women. Our society is so lost in its sexuality today and wanders to and fro trying to define itself. Bring us back to you Father, and teach us how to live as men and women in Christ; show us that abandoning our sexual natures is not the answer and serves only to become a detriment to us as individuals, a people, and as Christians. I praise you Father for your will, and desire for us to be men and women without Losing sight of you in the process. I thank you for teaching us to bridle our natures and to make them into the perfect image that reflects your Word and will. Merciful Father, forgive us for losing our way, and restore us to our rightful roles in your eyes. We were different at the moment you judged Adam and Eve, and we are different today; teach us who we are, and how you would have us behave.
“To the woman he said, "I will surely multiply your pain in childbearing; in pain you shall bring forth children. Your desire shall be contrary to your husband, but he shall rule over you." And to Adam he said, "Because you have listened to the voice of your wife and have eaten of the tree of which I commanded you, 'You shall not eat of it,' cursed is the ground because of you; in pain you shall eat of it all the days of your life; thorns and thistles it shall bring forth for you; and you shall eat the plants of the field. By the sweat of your face you shall eat bread, till you return to the ground, for out of it you were taken; for you are dust, and to dust you shall return."”
Genesis 3:16-19 ESV
Rich Forbes