Who's the Man?

I have had the privilege of leading a couple of classes for the Ashland Care Center the last several weeks. The class is entitled, "Authentic Manhood" and, as you may surmise, deals with the Biblical notion of true manliness.

In the first class we looked at how God created man to be the foundation of society. Adam was created first and Eve (and their children) was derived from him, and therefore dependent upon him. If the family is the basic building block of society, man is the most crucial element to society as he is the pillar of the family.

We also talked about some false conceptions of manliness that are prevalent in our contemporary culture (such as the macho man/bully, the goofball, the perpetual child, the sluggard, and the sexual conquistador). We ended by looking at some factors that have lead to the decay of true manliness in our day.

In the second class we talked about man's primary purpose. Of course we drew on the Westminster Shorter Catechism's 1st question and answer--Man's chief end is to glorify God and enjoy him forever. Our main illustration was that of trying to use a wrench as a hammer. You can do it, but it doesn't make the wrench or nail very happy. So too, when we don't get our purpose right, we end up making ourselves and everyone around us very unhappy.

In the third class we talked about man's divine design. That is to say, we looked at how God created men to be leaders, providers and protectors.

Our final class will be entitled, "Men of Honor," and we will deal with how a man's primary virtue is that of honor. Today the idea of honor is virtually extinct, though it has been well preserved within the ranks of the military. In the days of knights honor was of supreme importance. You might say that these were the days when men were men. During this stage of history boys were raise to be gentlemen of the highest order, devoting themselves to self sacrifice, valor, courage, acts of chivalry.

These are concepts that need to be recaptured in our day. It has been well put that we have many males today, but very few men. Going back to the lesson of our first class: A society that doesn't have men cannot stand for long.

In doing some research for this last class on manhood that I've been teaching I came across this article on Manners and Showing Respect. I wanted to tag it for my own files, and I thought others might want to give it a read. It is not so much "what manners need to be taught" as it is how important it is to teach manners and show respect." It provides a lot of definition and clarity as to what makes for respect in and around the home.