While my career plans changed often after I started college my main goal in life did not. For as long as I can remember I wanted to be a man. Not in the John Wayne, Arnold Schwarzenegger, action hero sense, but in the head of the household provide for your family, love your wife sense.
I was able to hang on to this goal through the years because it had meaning. It was clearly defined and easily understood. I knew that God desired all boys to become men and I knew what it meant to be a man in God’s eyes. I have spent my life pursuing this definition and the pursuit has led to success in the most important areas of my life, my roles of husband and father.
The definition of manhood was simple and straightforward to me 35 years ago. Times have changed and for many in our world the term now has so many meanings as to have no meaning at all. The result is a generation of young people who are rudderless and fatherless. It is not politically correct but I think it is time for real men to speak out about what true manhood is.
Real men love and live sacrificially, work to better themselves everyday and worry more about who they are instead of what they have.
Real men-
- Devote themselves to one woman, for a lifetime. I meet far to many males who go through life seeking casual relationships with as many women as they can find who are willing to service their sexual desires. Real men understand the importance of devotion.
- Are committed to their children. They realize being a father is the most important job they will ever do. They are willing to put parental success ahead of professional success.
- Practice self-control. They work to control their negative impulses. They set aside anger. They make home a safe place for their wives and children.
- Are men of faith. They submit to a higher authority. They live their lives according to the values defined by God. They live according to God’s moral code and not their own. They pass these values on to their children.
- Work for the long term security of their families. They deny themselves temporary pleasures and toys in order to save for the future.
- Make their own way in the world whenever possible. No job is beneath them and they do not look for a handout. They value work.
These characteristics of manliness are accessible and achievable by all men regardless of their background, ethnicity, education or status. They need not be defended, explained or justified, because they are true.
-Bart
Thanks for reading and a special thanks to those who share. Remember you can subscribe to the blog and also that you can follow me on twitter @bartbarrettmd.