toe-MAY-toe...toe-MAH-toe...

I used to hate tomatoes. They are still not my favorite but I eat them on hamburgers and other sandwiches because I know they are really good for me. You eat anything solely for the health benefits?

I used to hate cucumbers. Why? Because my Dad did. Still does to this day I believe. I eat them now for the health benefits and to set a good example for my kids--my boy, especially--who hates most anything called a vegetable. I want to be the best influence I can be on all my kids. There are PLENTY of areas where they have picked up bad behavior from me that I truly regret. It's ingrained in them now and I have to live with the consequences. At this point, it will take THEM realizing they are behaving that way and desire to see God change it in their own lives.

Wow, this post degraded from an entry on food to changing bad behaviors pretty quick! Maybe it's still the same topic though. I saw the following article pop up in my twitter followings and quickly perused it for the 5 Foods Men Should Be Eating Daily only to find, to my surprise that it wasn't 5 foods that I'd never want to put in my mouth but foods, for the most part, I have been eating--granted not daily, but I do try to eat them as I have occasion to.

Back to the point about changing behaviors. Are there things in your life that you want to change? Maybe it's not as easy as changing your diet to include eating a tomato or two a week, but it can be just as easy to identify the things that need changing. A great past associate pastor and mentor of mine, Dr Clayton Cloer, once gave me and a group of men the recipe for changing our lives. We used to meet once a week at "First Light" where he would pour his life into ours. Two lessons that I still hold on to today are: "Evaluating Your Walk" and "Characteristics of a Mature Believer". Each are "recipes", if you will, that will help you evaluate where you stand in life: as a Christian and as a man. As with any recipe, you have to follow it to get the end result. But, they are not magic panaceas and the results are not even up to you or me--but Almighty God and His work in and through your life. ("For it is God which worketh in you both to will and to do of his good pleasure." - Philippians 2:13) But, you do your part and the Holy Spirit will do His. :) I will post these here in later posts for your benefit. Hopefully you will find them as encouraging and useful as I have over the years.

photo by orangeacid

The art of manliness?

In today's society, when we think about being "manly", in a lot of people, it conjures up images of rednecks--at least in the south. When you joke about being "manly", you usually are joking and you poke out your chest and use the deepest voice you can muster and exaggerate your southern drawl. Now, as funny as that is in the moment, it's a sad state of affairs when you sit back and think about what the image of a "real man" has become. Are there really any true "real men" out there? As a Christian, there are lots of things that the Bible teaches me about being a real man and none of them have anything to do with chewing tobacky or chopping wood.

Real men love and lead.

They love the One True Almighty God and His Son Jesus Christ. And because of that "first love", they love their wives, their children, their country, the church and justice. They respect authority. The believe in the American way and the principles that our founding fathers believed in when they forged this great nation. Real men...love.

They lead their families based upon the love that guides them. They lead their wives as God directs--not lording it over them but guiding them and partnering with them as their "help meet". They lead their children and guide them in the Biblical principles that are tried, true and tested since the foundation of this world. They lead in the workplace. Real men are honest and hard-working. They are "servant leaders" as the Bible teaches. They don't ask others to do what they are unwilling to do themselves. Real men...lead.

I would like to point you to a website I found a while back that I've really enjoyed. While not a "Christian website", per se, it does hit on some of the more "secular" principles and "manly" things that I believe are being lost in our society that continually promotes an agenda far from the Bible and even that of our great society even a mere 20, 10, 5 years ago.

While I don't agree with everything they have to say, The Art of Manliness is a cool website, nonetheless. Give it a look-see and tell me what you think of some of their articles.

photo by jcoterhals