God Help Us Men to Find Our Place

I read about women’s struggle for equal pay and equal rights and breaking the glass ceiling and STEM for girls and the like. Very nice.

Well over half of college graduates now are women. How can we men step up? Not to beat the women, but to be significant in this world.

We men are tough and hard. Women are soft and comforting. Men want their kids to climb the mountain and women want their kids to wrap up in a blanket and be cuddled. Kids like the cuddling…and also the mountain climbing.

Women more and more do the hard things like combat arms in the Army and get more and more androgynous.

Some lose their cuddle but others can handle both somehow.

We Guys are Under the Gun

In school guys could be smart or be athletic and feel strong. Now girls are best in school and not afraid to be smart. They even do tough guy sports now. Hurray for the girls, but what about boys?

Boys mature more slowly than girls. Put 6 year olds in school, and the girls are much more ready.

Girls are also better followers and not always pushing for the top as care for the relationship.  They like to help and learn better.

We boys do not like to follow.  Furthermore, we are not as prone to listen. We men and boys deeply want to make our mark. Deep within us, we want to be significant. Now we find it hard to be on top in school and find it hard to be the most popular in sports.

If we boys cannot be on top, then we feel more worthless.  Therefore, we men are getting lost. We must step up.

Prisons are filled with men and women are afraid and condemning men, and we men feel bad again.

Men are the sexual predators. It is terrible. So then what do we do? Men are a mess and women are all the best. We men need to step up, and be all we can be.

God Help Us Men to Be Strong in Comfort

We men need to be strong enough to be vulnerable and to really care for women and men. Men need to be strong and do hard things like comfort their kids as well as climb mountains.

Men need to use their strength to handle the hard things and the hard soft things. I read a book by Larry Crab called Connecting.

He said the world needs strong people to reach out to those they can see as good. He sees that we can hold someone’s head against our bosom in strength and healing when we can see their goodness.

Men need to step into this space. We need to be able to be comforted, but we must often be the something strong that connects with something good.   Then we men can be making the world a better place.

We Can Use Our Strength in One Critical New Way

We can be strong in moving furniture and fixing cars or other, but we also need to fill a gap in this world to be something strong to see that which is good and hold and comfort that person.

When we can connect and support our families and communities like this, then we will be strong like God wants us to be in one more way that we need to add to our work. Then men can start to stand up and engage and be valuable in their families and communities and not just be feared. A book and counseling I got in this space that helped a lot is Created for Connection.

Let’s reach for this.