I'm writing today not only for men, but for all of us. I write hoping that all of us men will look at ourselves in the mirrors daily and decide what we are living for each day. I write for women that they will encourage their men and love their men so that they will help their men be in a position to freely pursue what God wants in and for their lives. I also write for children, that they will pray for us as men as we lead our homes, that we might be the kind of men they were proud to grow up under and learn from.
I had a great opportunity tonight to sit down with one of my greatest friends. On the surface, I guess we all do that kind of thing all the time, right? But this was different for me. It is something I used to make it a point to do more, but have gotten away from, and the blame for that rests solely on my shoulders. Tonight we were able to gather together and fellowship in the name of the Lord. We were able to sit as men and share our hearts, concerns, convictions, struggles, issues, etc, and not have to worry about negativity. We sat with the right hearts and were only there because we intentionally made it a point to have some good male fellowship because God had convicted our hearts that we were both in need of that and both feel that making it a point to have that is vital to being the men called us to be.
Honestly, I don't even have any other thoughts formed as I write this aside from the fact that God wanted me to share what a blessing he gave me tonight and share the fact that I see such a great difference in my life when I make it intentional to invest in other men with real authenticity. I can't help but believe in my heart that we are called to that, and God desires us to set our selfishness and pride aside and PURSUE these things in our lives. We all get so caught up in the notion and falsehood that we have everything on our shoulders and we are the ones that have to be perfect so that everything else will be ok and keep rolling along. WHAT A FREAKING LOAD OF CRAP!!!
So all I have tonight is this---I am praying for the men of Texarkana specifically. This is our home. We are the heads of our households, community leaders, church leaders, etc. If we want to see God have an impact on our town, then we need to die to self. We need to put ourselves in a position of operating in faith and trusting that if our hearts are right, God will use us to bring others to him. We need to admit that we need him in our lives first. We need to make it a point to show Christ in our homes. We need to show Christ in our community. We need to show that God is love---NOT judgement, negativity, selfishness, or hatred. We need to admit to others humbly that we sin as well, and we aren't perfect, and don't have it all together. If we need help, we need to create friendships and relationships amongst each other where we can ASK for help. Where we can ASK for prayer. And when we ask, we need to know that we can trust the hearts of the men we are asking because they share the same heart and ultimate values that we do ourselves.
Like I said earlier, all I am doing is sharing what God put on my heart because if I don't, I will know I am being disobedient. I don't like feeling that any more than I already do sometimes!
Is it your desire to see our community impacted positively for the Lord? Do you think you should have a part in that? Do you feel like you are doing your part currently in making that happen? It doesn't have to be huge, and all it takes is making one change or taking that first step. It's an attitude and a choice we all have.
Just ponder on that...
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