“It’s amazing how often the very ones who are supposed to
encourage us to move forward are the ones who hold us back. I’ve personally known so many women whose
hearts are filled with God’s passion and yet find themselves unable to seize
divine moments because of the passivity of their husbands.” (Chasing Daylight by Erwin Raphael
McManus, pg. 170).
Lisa Black is an amazing woman of God, so I was excited when we
got to have “girl time” with her during our debrief in Manzini. We got to talk about real men and women of
God and what that looks like.
Lisa said that your kind of marriage will be based on what kind
of woman you are. If you want a true
man, a king, a “Michael Hosea” (from the novel Redeeming Love by Francine Rivers…if you haven’t read it, know
that and many other books by her come strongly recommended) or “Mr.
Darcy” (from Pride and Prejudice),
you have to become a true woman. True
women are life-givers and have 3 basic gifts: the gift of encouragement and
nurturing, the gift of persuasion or favor, and the gift to be a mother and
mentor. Along with each of these gifts
comes the potential for a curse: with encouragement can come gossip, with
persuasion can come manipulation, with mothering can come control. These gifts are not to be taken
lightly. We have a responsibility to
make sure we are using them as God intended.
So after talking about women, we had a chance to talk about what
a real man of God looks like. There are
4 stages of a man’s life: the lover, who can be feminite,
“metrosexual,” nice, and will make a good dad someday; the warrior,
who is often ready to kill or blow up things, muscular men, protectors; the sage
– Mr. Intellectual, a bookworm, always a learner; and then the good one, the
man who encompasses all of the above characteristics and the one all women really long for: the KING.
A king will physically protect his wife and family, spiritually cover
them, has healthy relationships, and is willing to fight for what is his.
Our society is generally lacking in the “real man”
category (I mean, have you looked at the world race lately? 20 girls and 6 guys…doesn’t that seem a
little skewed in one direction?) There
is a calling on the guys of our generation to rise up, to become real men of
God, to take a stand for what they believe and know, and to work on becoming
kings in every sense of the word. As
McManus pointed out in Chasing Daylight,
there are many women who are ready to go take on the world, but instead of
being encouraged by their husbands, they are held back or discouraged.
So
come on men, rise up and take the lead.
Encourage us, watch over us, and let us soar under the wings of your
protection and guidance. Women, look
for a king (or if you’re under the age of 80 look for a man on his way to
becoming a king), and let him cover you, because you were created to flourish
under the gentle nurturing of a man of God.
