Men today suffer from generations of absent dads. Their dads worked hard to provide for them. They sweated long hours, cranked out products they were proud of and put food on the table. But they were not at home. This put mom in the dual parent role. I believe this is one reason so many men wrestle with effeminate tendencies: mom was the primary influencer in their lives. Don’t get me wrong, I’m SO THANKFUL for my mom, grandmother and other female influences in my life. But I’m not female. I’m male, created so by God. I need male influences to know how to do just about everything required of me in life. Thankfully I had a very present dad who taught me how to live faithfully. I was also surrounded by faithful men from our church who modeled a good life for me. This isn’t just lacking today. It’s unheard of. Boys are figuring out life on their own. 

We are in desperate need of strong, faithful, honest, moral men. This is not to say the guy working on the line can’t be a strong man. But he does have to work harder at being present than the guy apprenticing his son as a brick layer. The man on the road 40 weeks out of the year can call his son for more than a one minute conversation each night. Boys need more than texts and birthday cards. They need YOU, dad! They need to breathe you in until they can pick you out of 100 men blindfolded. They need to know your heartbeat. Boys, your boys and all the others God places around you, so desperately need you they’d beg for your time. A male’s presence on our playgrounds draws an immediate crowd. A patient man who teaches young boys to work on cars or fix a lawnmower or cut firewood would have a waiting list of boys wanting to be around him. A man who can model what it is to love a wife faithfully, cherish her with all his heart, care for his family with the character of Christ and live this out in the day to day would have a million views on YouTube. A real man who can teach a young man how to manage his money and not just buy whatever he wants, whenever he wants it would fill a school full of classrooms. Are you getting the point? 

If you are that man, if you have the ability to model faithfulness to the next generation, are you doing it? If you are not yet that man, do you want to be? The answer is not far off. Certificates can’t prepare you. There is no test to pass or fail. The answer is found in being hid with Christ in God. Jesus can prepare you to be all the man you were ever created to be! Will you seek Him instead of money, recognition and all the stuff you can accumulate? When you are gone, your possessions and prizes will go to storage or yard sales. Your money will be spent and your certificates trashed. But your investment in your son, grandson and/or all the boys in your neighborhood will be passed down for generations! Which path will you choose: the one that benefits only you or the one that benefits all those God has put in your care?