An Intimate Morning with the Brothers

There are times when our men’s group is easy to write about, and then there are times. . . . . .when it is almost better not to say anything. Today, was one of those times when a quick summary is the best way to tell you what happened. I’d planned on the men sharing some of their homework assignments, but it didn’t happen.

It was almost as if the Holy Spirit said; “NEVER MIND!”

What was said, was totally in line with chapter six.

Here’s what was said in bullet statements.

• Men tend to take themselves a little too seriously.
  • It is better to live, laugh, and love (Who’d we borrow that from?)
• Past abuses, and immature behavior require a great deal of effort and time to repair.
  • If our wives don’t listen to us anymore, it is probably because we never really listened to them.
• It is better to live a life of love and grace, than to demand respect and obedience
  • You do the right things because they are right, not because they can garner favor
  • Demands, lectures, and preaching to our families does not replace loving by example
    We found ourselves confronting one of Wes Yoder's main points of the book; The discussion between fathers and sons is a crucial stepping stone to raising better husbands and fathers in future generations. We who claim to be God's children, can't afford to assume that our sons will get what we know by osmosis. We can't assume that they are getting it through Wednesday, or Sunday night services. We can't even assume that they are taking it in through our Men's group. The true power of a Kingdom life is in living a life of love in your home, with explanations, 8 x 10 glossies with circles and arrows, and lots of reading in the instruction manual. It is pulling your son aside and letting him know what you did right, and even more importantly, what you did wrong (I guarantee you, they'll already know.) The best tool of all is total humility. The last thing you need to teach your son is how to behave as the first Adam did. When we find ourselves blaming our wives, or asking that death invoking question; “What about me?”, we doom another generation of young men to learn what we learned all over again. Let's move forward. Let's leave a better spiritual legacy.

I know this doesn’t help those who weren’t there this morning, but due to some of the intensely personal discussions, I am a little reticent about giving you the context. So, this will be one of the few times I’m going to tell you to talk to me if you want to know what was said. You’ll have to trust me that it was all good, and I found myself double-checking my own heart numerous times.

I still want to hear the stories, so your homework is. . . .do last weeks homework.