Bryan Van Slyke
There’s a question that keeps coming up for me and it goes like this, “Why are men not taking the initiative in learning, living and maintaining”?
I ask this question not just because of what I see in our culture, but also because I know of the material available to men. Running a website like Manturity.com doesn’t limit me to my site. Instead, it opens the doors to share and learn about other sites like mine. And there are a lot of them.
So before moving forward with this question, I thought I’d share some of them for you and the value they could offer you. First off, the best material is located in the Scriptures. Start off with Proverbs and dig into the very foundations of wisdom. Follow an awesome Daily Devotional from Wire. Explore Manly Virtues from Wolf & Iron. Keep your faith and body in shape at Conquering Manhood. Grow as a man and father at FiveStarMan. Get a comprehensive look at manhood on Charismamag.com’s New Man site. Or attend an amazing conference this year with the men over at Cavetime.
The resources tab at the top right offers even more.
With all of these resources available to you, what is holding you back from taking the initiative to become a better and more mature man?
I thought about that question too. Here are a few things that might be holding you back. To be honest, some of these things held me back for years.
o Fear
o Stubbornness
o Lack of Desire
o Busyness
o No Example
o Anger
o Lack of Purpose
o Other (Share your thoughts in the comments)
Are you or have you been living in one of these areas? Think about how long you have been there? Do you realize that living with these in your life WILL keep you from growing?
Guys, I was there and I even still battle these thoughts on occasion. I use to sit in church and be as active as a large rock up in a hillside. I thought I was mature in my marriage, until I realized that we fought about the dumbest things nearly every day. I use to always put aside reading or new learning as I thought I already knew everything. All of these immature ways held me back from being the man I really wanted to be.
I challenge you to review your life over the last year. Then review the list above and admit to which ones have been holding you back. Recognize which ones have keeping you from living and maintaining a mature manhood.
Which one of these has been keeping you from taking the initiative in your life?
This is a question I had to answer myself and, when I look back over my last year, I realize that I lost my desire too often and stayed way too busy.
So where do we go from here?
For some of you, it might just be recognizing your areas that need growth and taking action in them this year. For me though, I realize that these are specific areas that I need to pray about. The areas where I failed, make me realize that Jesus was excluded from those areas. He may have been in my life, but He was only a part of it. And since Jesus is the only way to life, He can’t just be a part of your life.
In John 14:6, Jesus said, “I am the way and the truth and the life.”
Guys, you can make this year great! You can find success where you might have had failure in previous years.
Take the initiative to set aside any of the items listed above and become a mature man that is willing to learn, live and maintain maturity in his life!
Manturity is a blog built on establishing spiritual maturity in today’s man. The goal is to assist men in building better marriages, help men in grow in maturity and explore different aspects of manhood.
From: www.manturity.com web site. February 2016.
The above article, “Is There Anything Holding You Back From Christ-like Manhood?” was written by Bryan Van Slyke. The article was excerpted from www.manturity.com.
The material is copyrighted and should not be reprinted under any other name or author. However, this material may be freely used for personal study or research purposes.
This article may not be written by an Apostolic author, but it contains many excellent principles and concepts that can be adapted to most churches. As the old saying goes, “Eat the meat. Throw away the bones.”
