M

en, we have to talk. Husbands, we have to reflect. We need to identify and come to terms with our mandate here on earth. [ictt-tweet-inline]If John Maxwell said that “everything rises and falls on leadership”, then I say that society rises and falls on men.[/ictt-tweet-inline] The rising and falling is a function of one main thing in life—knowledge.

We shall be great husbands and men to the degree that we are fully aware of who we are, why we are and what we must do with that knowledge.

The Greatness of The Male Man

[ictt-tweet-inline]The greatest craving for the female (even though some will not agree) is to be taken care of by a man[/ictt-tweet-inline]. That is traditionally how they were made and meant to exist. We all know that the male man was created first. What comes first does not mean that it is more important than the other. It simply means that it is the foundation of what follows. It means that responsibility rests upon its shoulders.

Today, if you were to take stock of the great men we have in life; it will be heartbreaking for the female folk of what we have become. Seriously, what standards do we use these days for gauging a great male man? It seems to me that the focus of the male man is superficial as it is shallow and hollow. The typical male man today focuses on looking good, feeling good and gathering the goods. That is why we are so clueless on how to take care of a woman.

[ictt-tweet-inline]Nothing is more rewarding to a woman than a man who is come of age of his greatness and glory![/ictt-tweet-inline] When we speak of such matters, it seems as if this is so far reaching and unattainable for us men. The fact is that it is possible to be the men that our wives dream of, our children are proud of and our society is blessed to have.

All the same, the seeds of greatness in the male man do exist as we speak. This is true to every male man alive, even the one just born few moments ago. We were fashioned for greatness as men and as husbands.

The Most Powerful Ingredient of Greatness

I might give you several aspects to build your greatness and glory as a man but all those will hinge on one major thing: Commitment to attain to that level. This means that we must want to push ourselves past our comfort zones in order to daily improve different facets of our Manhood until we attain the full stature of the measure of the glory that God placed in us. In other words, we must be willing to work at it, embrace the discomfort that improvement comes with, feel the shame and the embarrassment that could be necessary to be overcome, and generally push our limits as men. It also means that we must be willing to feel the pain of breaking the cultures that have held us back, telling us such things as:

• Real men don’t cry
• All men must cheat on their wives
• Purity is not possible for men
• Men were created with no power of self control
• What a man can do, a woman can also do

We must be willing to break the misconception that the forces of “gender equality” are trying to create. That all a man is needed for is to donate sperms. Even as we are told that “a man is the head” of the home, in practical sense, the man is actually the foundation of the home, and by extension, society.

Being Men of Greatness

As we push our limits, focusing on being men of greatness and glory, we shall start seeing those glimpses of greatness. We shall start feeling them in our psyche and before long, they will start carrying us around. IN other words, we shall start reaping the benefits of our greatness and glory as the men that God intended for us to be.

The following things are what we can work on in order to bring our greatness and glory to the fore as men and as husbands.

1. Be God Fearing

[ictt-tweet-inline]There is nothing in man as beautiful as a God-fearing male man.[/ictt-tweet-inline] Now, the concept of a God fearing man has been distorted by religion.  A God-fearing man is not as gullible as religion paints it. He does not walk around chanting religious texts and prophesying. He does not spend a large percentage of his day and week in a house of religion. He is not a wimp that is scared of business, negotiations, deal making, money and the world.

Indeed, a God-fearing man is a valiant man who will take the head off the enemy of God’s standards…and I am speaking figuratively here. A God-fearing man is an authoritative figure who operates smack in the middle of God’s program called “Dominion”. A God-fearing man is a man full of vision that is driven by their God-given purpose. He is a man filled with wealth that blesses his lineage to the fourth generation. He is indeed as Jesus said, “the salt of the earth”, able to affect society positively by his input, material contribution and gems of wisdom.  Finally but not least, a God-fearing man is a man filled with knowledge, understanding, wisdom, insight and counsel on those three things I mentioned above:

• The Who
• The Why and
• The What of Manhood.

2. Be Knowledgeable

The word “darkness” as used in the Bible is not necessarily night. It means “ignorance”. So when they say the devil is the prince of darkness, it means that he will dominate you to the extent that you are ignorant. A great man has thorough knowledge of his mandate on earth. [ictt-tweet-inline]The greatest knowledge that we as men need is the knowledge of why we were created in the first place.[/ictt-tweet-inline] We need to figure our God-given purpose. I dare say that such knowledge is even greater than any academic paper you could ever get. If we would know what authority God has given us as men and husbands, our wives, children and society will revel in our greatness and glory.

3. Be Visionary

The knowledge of our purpose on earth should automatically create a vision that we pursue. After Winston Leonard Spencer Churchill died, they asked his widow Clementine why she married him. He was not the most handsome man around and he drank a little bit too much. They asked her if there were no better looking men than Churchill for her. She said they were several of them, but they wanted to hear about history, while Winston Churchill wanted to create it.

[ictt-tweet-inline]Our greatness as men and husbands is directly proportional to the great vision that we pursue[/ictt-tweet-inline], that which is greater than ourselves, greater than amassing toys and things and dying in a whimper. A great man and husband despises “things” but has set their heart to beat after greatness that makes the world a better place. A visionary man has a pursuit in life that is relentless, has captured their imagination and has totally consumed them. A wife and a child to such a man are blessed. May we all be men of purpose, vision and pursuit! Imagine what society will be like if we did this?

4. Be Fearless

We are all captivated with stories of conquest against odds. We love stories of William Wallace, 300, as well as David and Goliath. Women sing praises of men who are fearless. Now let me develop this for a minute. Fearlesseness is never based on instinctive and childish aggression to prove something. Fearlessness stems from purpose and pursuit, and it comes in handy when there is opposition to what we hold dear. Martin Luther King Jnr, Nelson Mandela, Malcolm X, Steve Biko, and Boniface Mwangi are examples of those who are fearless men. They have/had a course that is greater than then. In fact, they are fearless to the degree that they are selfless. [ictt-tweet-inline]A fearless man has died to himself and his comforts.[/ictt-tweet-inline] Remember, there is a balance here. We are not talking about stupid fearlessness, but purpose induced, selfless fearlessness that sacrifices self comfort for the greater good of society.

5. Be a Trailblazer

A great man takes initiative. He is always alert in protection, proactive in anticipation of change and danger, and ruthless in taking pragmatic initiative and action. Our women are so proud of us when they see us initiate things and follow them through bringing them to life. We have already talked extensively about ideas here and we can use that knowledge to be daring enough and take initiative, braving places we have never been at before. It is paradoxical because sometimes our women want comfort and anything that threatens it they resist it. It is called the fear of the unknown. Great men are trailblazers. Let us ask ourselves this question as men and husbands: What have we done at personal level over the past ten years that is trailblazing? Selah (pause and think about that)

6. Be a Father

The word father originally means “one who nurtures”. It could be applied in very many contexts, such as “Father of the Nation” to mean one who birthed and nurtured it. Take care of things. Take care of our wives’ grooming, growth and blooming. We shouldn’t be scared if they want to progress. In fact, our greatest input in their lives would be to excavate that which they love and matters to them and support it to the hilt. That is how a selfless and great man operates.

The end.