Lessons from Above and Below

As I was meaning to type yesterday: the lesson I learned during all of this Larry Boy fiasco - told in the usual rabbit trail manner by which I speak and live.


Some constant struggles and questions in my life are: what does it mean to be a man? What equals masculinity? What does the Bible say about these issues? Well, my friends and blog acquaintences, I have found a worthy link that quenched and whet my appetite regarding these issues. It is the website for the Council on Biblical Manhood and Womanhood. The website is very thorough at fielding some answers to my last question/struggle listed. The council members include some major studs and studettes such as R. Albert Mohler, Jr., C. J. Mahaney, and John Piper to list just a few. You deicde who's the studette.


I spent quite a couple hours perusing this site once I found it. On it I read that the husband's role in the family, Biblically (b/c that is a tennet of their beliefs: that the Bible defines particular structural roles for the husband and wife in a marriage relationship), is to bear primary responsibilty for leading, protecting, and providing for the family. THANK YOU. Finally, someone to give me the answer. I had never heard this message so clearly and succinctly spelled out (literally, letter by letter).


Now, on with the story:
As I was sitting praying and thinking on what Sarah and I should do with the truck situation. My anger and frustration and uncertainty of what to do were quickly brooding. As this was taking place my brain and heart started looking for who to blame. It's her dad's fault for not helping enough, it's my fault for not being able to balance grad school and two jobs, it's her fault for not having a good enough job, it's the brother's faults, it's my family's fault....blah, blah, blah, the B.S. continued. All of those were thoughts that were out of anger and fear and just plain not true. (none of them Sarah, stop self-condemning.) The Lord struck me with a feathery 2x4 (which Galileo (I think) would assert hurt as much as a wooden 2x4, thank you very much) and said, "Hey, it's nobody's fault. It have orchestrated this to happen, and I will provide for you. Trust me." Then He proceeded to gently and swiftly bring to mind the thoughts from the CBMW (above website and organization) about how it is my role to bear primary responsibility for the family. Wow. I was stunned. Granted, Sarah and I aren't married yet, but I do think the "becoming one" has started, and as the wedding nears that definitely applies to our bank accounts. I realized that I had been looking at our relationship as more equalitarel. I looked for us to go into things (financially) evenly, half-and-half you could say. Maybe that wasn't wrong while we were dating to see things that way. But this train of thought could not continue into our marriage! It was a huge wake up call that God views me as responsible for the family. It's like a big ol' dose of maturity (or a call for one rather) sat right in my lap in my oober comfy, rust colored recliner (yep, the same one Cary).


This whole looking out for one's whole family instead of just one's self is a whole new brain shift for me. Seriously, it's like I have to view everything through a whole new lens (or set of them rather).


The morale of this story - because the world could just never do to have a morale less story *coNapoleon Dynamiteugh* - is read good and profitable websites, and those do not usually have uncovered, mammalian reproductive organs shown on there.