What's So Great About Men?

In re-reading my last post, I started to wonder if I came across as someone who views all men with suspicion and fear with my talk of needing to "weed out" the jerks, etc. I hope not, because that's the furthest thing from what I think.

I know that there are jerks out there, and psychos, misogynists, etc. But I've known far too many good and decent men in my life to believe that most men are like that. Men who display in their daily lives the very attributes that God had in mind when he designed them: servant leadership, courage, strength, integrity, and good old-fashioned masculinity. My father stands out as one shining example: he married my mother, who at the time was a single parent, and raised and loved her child as his own. His constancy, his steadiness, his integrity and silent strength have been a safe harbor to me all of my life, and a guidepost for what I can and should expect a husband to be like.

I am so sick and tired of the man-bashing that goes on in our culture today. Oh sure, it's no longer quite as overt as it used to be (how many times have you heard a woman yelling at a man for holding open a door for her?) but it's still there. If I see one more vapid sitcom in which the wife is a beautiful, capable, intelligent woman "enduring" her marriage to a fat, boorish buffoon, I think I'll scream. The men typified in these worthless wastes of film aren't even capable of leading a horse to water, much less leading their families. Where are the celluloid examples of the confident, secure, thoughtful man? To borrow a phrase from Paula Cole, "Where have all the cowboys gone?"

To be sure, we would see a lot more examples of this type of man if women, and society in general, held men up to a higher standard. People live up (or down) to your expectations of them. But that's neither here nor there. The point I'm trying to make (rather poorly, I'm afraid) is that MEN ARE NOT THE ENEMY. I'm tired of the garbage of the feminist movement, trying to turn men into women. We want men to be more like us, then we do nothing but complain when they comply with our wishes! They can't win for losing!

I've watched the pendulum begin to swing the other way over the past decade or so, with great joy and relief. It's about time that we let men be men again. And I'm not talking about shallow, inconsequential issues like whether he leaves the toilet seat up or watches football in his underwear. Come on ladies, stay with me. When a man is walking with God and living his life the way God designed him to, we as women need not fear submitting to him. Sure, he'll make mistakes, as will we. We're all sinners - it's what we do. But a man who has submitted himself to the Lord and committed himself to leading his family to the best of his ability, and loving his wife as Christ loved the church, is not a man to be rebelled against or despised. He's a man to be loved and respected. In today's culture, that kind of man may seem like an endangered species. But there's more of them out there than you may think. I know...I see them every Sunday.