I once read a book that was entitled, "Mansfield's Book of Manly Men: An Utterly Invigorating Guide To Being Being Your Most Masculine Self" by Stephen Mansfield. This book is so needed today and men all across America would be wise to read it. As men, we have slowly lost our way and what it means to be a man. Here Mansfield's four Manly Maxims:
1. Manly Men Do Manly Things.
In referring to the life of a man, we only know his character by what he does. Today's culture has it all wrong. Manhood is not cruising for women like some predatory beast and then devouring them for pleasure before casting them aside. Manhood isn't smoking cigars and watching sports (however, that is nice!). Manhood is making a family whole, a woman safe, a child confident, and a community strong. Manly things are rooted in heritage in honor. It is rooted in action. Manhood is action.
2. Manly Men Tend Their Fields.
Here is the big picture: It is the job of a man to know the definition of the field assigned to him. Who "belongs" to him? What is he responsible for? What boundaries is he guarding? What forces - physical, moral, emotional, spiritual, intellectual - must he guard against? What needs to be done? And, certainly, what does God require? After answering these questions, it is the job of a man to cultivate that field - to guard it's boundaries, assure it's health, provide for it generously, and fill it with the love so it thrives.
3. Manly Men Build Manly Men.
Put a young, unformed man in the presence of older men, and the process automatically begins. It is simply the outworking of the way men are made. The young man watches. He listens. He ponders. Soon, he becomes what he beholds. He starts patterning himself, almost without intending to, after these impressive older men. This can happen without the older men intentionally teaching a lesson or addressing the younger man directly. It is a result of the contagious power of genuine manhood and the way men intuitively absorb the manly culture around them
4. Manly Men Live To The Glory of God.
A man cannot fulfill his purpose if he is living for applause, approval and affirmation in this world. It won't come, or not enough to answer the needs of his soul. A man is to carry such responsibility that he will descend into exhaustion and resentment if he does not have the inner resources that come from living in connection with God. Men are meant to tend to the lives of others in such a way that they must have insight that comes from beyond them.
Men, we become the man we are meant to be by living to the glory of God
