***And you shall know the truth. And the truth will set you free!!!***

WHEN WILL MEN BE MEN?

A devotion by Vince Lichlyter based on the Jonah33 song

Track #8: "FATHER’S SONG"

From the album The Strangest Day

“The righteous man leads a blameless life and blessed are his children after him."--Proverbs 20:7

I will never forget the morning my son was born. I was a nervous wreck. I paced the hospital floor and chomped my gum like a college basketball coach. My wife was in agony, and there wasn’t a thing that I could do for her. Nurses were running around doing whatever nurses do, and then it happened. The next thing I remember was the mid-wife asking me "Daddy, do you want to help deliver the baby?" Of course I did! In a flash I was at the foot of the bed, ready to be “Dr.” Vince Lichlyter. I helped deliver our baby, then cut the cord, and there he was: my newborn son. And boy, was I proud and relieved. The tough part was over. Or at least that’s what I thought. I don’t think I have ever been more wrong in all my life. The tough part had just begun!

Being a dad is probably the most challenging thing that a man can do. We live in a world where we are trained to look out for "numero uno"...to place ourselves above others because if we don’t, no one else will. So being a good father requires a sense of self-sacrifice, which is unfamiliar territory to most men. In America, 40% of children today will grow up WITHOUT a father in their home. More than 50% of all new marriages will end in divorce.

Men have abandoned their role, their responsibility, and their reward for fulfilling God’s plan and purpose as husbands, fathers, and brothers in Christ. I know that this isn’t the kind of thing that rock bands usually sing about, but if we don’t change, our civilization WILL ultimately fall apart.

From the very dawn of history--from the very first chapters of the Bible--God ordained men to provide for the spiritual, emotional, and physical needs of his wife and children. God established the family as the basic unit of society, with the man in the leadership role. Rather than being a position of self-glorification and self-gratification, this role is a sacred trust, a profound responsibility, and a sacrificial service. Guys, the fact that you’re a male doesn’t make you a man, and just because you can make a girl pregnant doesn’t make you a dad.

I know that I don’t have it all figured out, but this one thing is sure: if you are a husband or a father, our wives and kids need us to be all God called us to be. We need to re-examine the values of integrity and honor and commitment clearly communicated in God’s Word.

I also want to encourage those of you that haven’t had the best father figure in the past. Know that God designed the position of "father,” and He knows exactly the love and support you need. Let Him into the chamber of your heart that you have reserved for the bitterness and hurt of your past, and He will set you free from this pain.

Today’s prayer: Heavenly Father, thank You for the gift of my family. Help me to rise up and fill the role You have given me with grace and love. Help me to earn respect, give respect, and model respect in my family. I pray for my parents, and pray that you will help me grow into the man or woman, husband or wife that You want me to be. Change my heart, change my family, change my world. Thank You for Your healing, and I ask that it would come even now. Amen.

Labels: Inspirations Thoughts

My History,My Past, My life!!!

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WHEN WILL MEN BE MEN?