The MAN card?
We all have different ideas of what qualities it takes to earn your MAN card. Yeah I went there. The infamous MAN card. I have had this card taken away from me so many times that I’m starting to wonder when things are going to fall off and other stuff grow in their place. Here are a 10 of the latest reasons why someone has taken my MAN card away.
1. I cannot help but cry whenever I watch Extreme Makeover Home edition.
2. I confess I’d rather go to the Opera than my wife.
3. I work out to Aerobics videos with my wife.
4. When my daughter got a Barbie playhouse for Christmas I played Barbie’s with her for over an hour.
5. I like many a chick flick; Romantic comedies are actually pretty good.
6. I actually like clothes and fashion. (They just don’t make most of the good stuff in XXL, US XXL)
7. I occasionally read People.
8. I sing higher than most girls
9. When my daughter asked me too I watched the Justin Bieber Documentary and actually liked it.
10. I will choose my wife over my bros any day of the week.
First off let me apologize to any guy whose MAN card privileges I have revoked in the past. The MAN card is by all accounts stupid. What makes a man a man is not the sports that he plays, or most likely used to play back in the day when he was the next__________ ! It’s not how hot his girlfriend/wife/conquests are; besides my wife is hotter than all of those anyways. It’s not even how much money he makes, thank goodness for this one or I’d be hosed. A man is defined by how he serves others. First his God, second his spouse (whether or not he’s found her yet) then his kids and finally those that God puts in his way. Now get this straight I fail constantly at all of these. You see being a Man is stinking hard. I want to serve me first. I would love it if everyone just did what I wanted and I had complete control over every situation. But sorry Cory that’s not how it works. Back in my first year of college I had to take a freshman lit class. We all had to take them and by the time I actually got around to signing up (yeah some things never change) there was only one class left. Feminism in Literature. I showed up to the first class and needless to say I was the only guy there and realized quite rapidly that I probably wasn’t going to be meeting any love interests in this class. For six months I benefited from every negative experience, feeling, and hatred that each of the girls in the class along with the Professor felt or had felt due to the male half of our species. Then came time for the final paper. After pulling my thumb from my mouth and escaping the fetal position I decided I would write a paper on what it is to be a man. Brilliant, I know, but as I researched and read all these books by many an expert I finally was hit by a few passages in the Bible that have stuck with me to this day. So here in summary are 5 points that I learned.
1. Love God and submit to his authority on your life.
Matthew 22:36-38 36 “Teacher, which is the greatest commandment in the Law?”
37 Jesus replied: “‘Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind.’[a] 38 This is the first and greatest commandment.
2. Love your wife holding her in esteem and supporting her and presenting her as beautiful inside and out.
Eph 5:25-3325 Husbands, love your wives, just as Christ loved the church and gave himself up for her 26 to make her holy, cleansing[a] her by the washing with water through the word, 27and to present her to himself as a radiant church, without stain or wrinkle or any other blemish, but holy and blameless. 28 In this same way, husbands ought to love their wives as their own bodies. He who loves his wife loves himself. 29 After all, no one ever hated their own body, but they feed and care for their body, just as Christ does the church— 30 for we are members of his body. 31 “For this reason a man will leave his father and mother and be united to his wife, and the two will become one flesh.”[b] 32This is a profound mystery—but I am talking about Christ and the church. 33 However, each one of you also must love his wife as he loves himself, and the wife must respect her husband.
3. Serve others
Matthew 22:39-40 39 And the second is like it: ‘Love your neighbor as yourself.’[b] 40 All the Law and the Prophets hang on these two commandments.”
4. I cannot do it on my own.
Philippians 4:13 I can do everything through him who gives me strength.
5. I will fail and when I do I need to own it and seek forgiveness for it.
John 21:15-19 15 When they had finished eating, Jesus said to Simon Peter, “Simon son of John, do you love me more than these?”
“Yes, Lord,” he said, “you know that I love you.”
Jesus said, “Feed my lambs.”
16 Again Jesus said, “Simon son of John, do you love me?”
He answered, “Yes, Lord, you know that I love you.”
Jesus said, “Take care of my sheep.”
17 The third time he said to him, “Simon son of John, do you love me?”
Peter was hurt because Jesus asked him the third time, “Do you love me?” He said, “Lord, you know all things; you know that I love you.”
Jesus said, “Feed my sheep. 18 Very truly I tell you, when you were younger you dressed yourself and went where you wanted; but when you are old you will stretch out your hands, and someone else will dress you and lead you where you do not want to go.” 19 Jesus said this to indicate the kind of death by which Peter would glorify God. Then he said to him, “Follow me!”
This is by no means and I’m not even implying that I have it all together but as I sit here today writing this I realize that though I have a long way to go to. I cannot say that I am alone. I have an amazing God who has blessed me with an awesome wife and wonderful kids who all through my many failings have extended grace love and forgiveness to me and so I will stick my MAN card back in my Wallet puff out my chest and proudly profess that I am a MAN.
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