Today's Devotional

 

 January 27, 2009

                                                                                                                      

Subject:  Where Are The Men? 

1 Corinthians 16:13 "Watch ye, stand fast in the faith, quit you like men, be strong."

---

I talk about this kind of thing frequently, but the realization of how far we've come in our society in the direction of feminizing boys and men took me by surprise as I taught my high school leadership class this week.  As we discussed that leaders must see the different abilities that people have, I thought of an analogy.  I began to talk about the different strengths and weaknesses of super heroes like those in the picture above.  To may amazement, there were male students in my class who not only didn't know about the league of justice, but had never heard of Flash, Capt America and one male student had never heard of Batman.  I was amazed.  I went on to ask these kids what they watched and everyone of them knew of SpongeBob Squarepants.  An ensuing discussion began about whether or not SpongeBob is gay.

I don't think that this is only in cartoons, but as you look at the men being portrayed on most TV sitcoms or dramas, you don't find a lot of strong masculinity in those figures.  We not only had strong male figures in the League of Justice, but also in James West and The Cartwrights of Bonanza and even Ward on Leave It To Beaver was a clearly strong man in the house.

The bible talks about men being strong and standing fast in the faith as it challenges all men to be "men."  Today pray that we become, not necessarily physically strong, but that we stand up as the strong men of God that He created us to be.  Quit Ye Like Men!!!            

Carlen