courage | Heartstone Journey

3 Feelings That Hold Men Back From Taking Initiative

Passing the half way mark, we are in our sixth week of our ten week Stepping Up series with our church men’s group. This weeks topic was about men ‘taking initiative’ and wow was it eye opening and inspiring.

The basic definition of initiate is to cause or facilitate the beginning of.

Pause and think of the men, both young and old, around you. In your family, at church, in your neighborhood, at work or fill in the blank ________. Does the word initiative come to mind? Does there seem to be a lack of initiative in men today?

Hold onto that thought as we dig deeper into some great examples of men taking initiative. The list of great men who took initiative is long, but this session focused the three stories in particular.

What Can The Guards At Tomb Of The Unknowns Teach Us?

We are half way through our ten week Stepping Up series with our church men’s group and the finish line is slowly coming into focus. This weeks topic was about men ‘stranding firm’ and it really hit home for me. The video that kick started the session led with a byopic of the the guards that have chosen to take on the duty of guarding the Tomb Of The Unknowns.

The Tomb of the Unknowns is a monument dedicated to American service members who have died without their remains being identified. It is also known as the Tomb Of The Unknowns, but it has never been officially named. It is located in Arlington National Cemetery in Virginia, United States of America. The World War I “Unknown” is a recipient of the Medal of Honor, the Victoria Cross, and several other foreign nations’ highest service awards. The U.S. Unknowns who were interred are also recipients of the Medal of Honor, presented by U.S. Presidents who presided over their funerals.ⁱ

Even if you already know this, its worth repeating — these soldiers have NEVER left the tomb unguarded for any reason. Pause and take that in for a minute!

Why the example of the Tomb Of The Unknowns? And, why is this so important in God calling a man to step up?

Lets unpack it a bit.

4 Characteristics Of Authentic Manhood

We are in our third week of week of the Stepping Up series with our church men’s group. Today we journeyed through defining what is authentic manhood?

Defining authentic manhood is tough, because we don’t see it much in our modern progressive culture. In today’s world view the very idea of manhood has been emasculated and masculinity is under attack. The dominant narrative throws out labels such as clueless, knucklehead, bumbling idiot, fill in the blank ________.

Voddie Baucham, pastor at Grace Family Baptist Church in Spring Texas shares that if you could package up todays definition of “manhood” it would the three B’s: billfold, ball-field and bedroom. Being a man in today’s standards is about how much you make, what do you do (focus on athletes) and how are with the ladies. Wow, does today s culture have it wrong!

Heartstone Journey starts the conversation around authentic manhood with Jesus Christ as the model. Why? Because He is the model!

Unfortunately, most of us men don’t follow this model. We follow the Adam model and here’s why.

Courage Robbers: The Top 10 Things Men Fear Most

I am amped up to be one of the group leaders for a 10 week series our Men’s Ministry group is spearheading at our church called, “Stepping Up”. I was encouraged to see 80+ men decide to take this journey with us to step up into Biblical manhood, despite the crazy snow storm that was raging on outside.

“Be watchful, stand firm in the faith, act like men, be strong. Let all that you do be done in love.” -1 Corinthians 16:13-14

After watching the inspiring session one video, which highlighted the courageous story of Red Erwin an airman of the Los Angeles B-29 Super-fortress, I met the five men assigned to my group who will be taking this journey with me. Great bunch of guys with diverse backgrounds and a ton of baggage that most men carry with them, including me. As I was going through the weekly exercises I paused at the section called ‘Courage Robbers’ because so many of us men just get paralyzed by courage robbers.

Life shrinks or expands in proportion to one’s courage.

—Anais Nin

Here is an excerpt from my book Heartstone where I share a snippet of dealing with some of my own courage robbers:

Why We Need More Sheepdogs And Less Hashtags!

My son and I went to see American Sniper with a group of band of brothers and wow what an incredible move! Not only will this movie stick with you for a while afterwards, it’s an important film portraying a true war hero that people should see. I am not on the panel for Oscar nominations or a well known movie reviewer, but American Sniper is absolutely deserving of any and all award recognition. Also, it’s a film that isn’t merely a war movie – it’s a story of courage, conviction, brotherhood and caring.

I won’t give away any spoilers but it was the first time I’ve ever experienced a silence so overpowering you could hear a pin drop at the conclusion of the film. The movie was powerful and the ending created an emotional pause as the credits flew by without the typical music — the audience was stunned to silence. Iv’e always had the utmost honor, gratitude and respect for those who serve our country but with this movie I could feel it in my heart and I could I feel it in my chest!

So, what does this have to do with sheepdogs and hashtags?

Great question, but before we dive into that here is a synopsis of American Sniper:

3 Feelings That Hold Men Back From Taking Initiative

What Can The Guards At Tomb Of The Unknowns Teach Us?

4 Characteristics Of Authentic Manhood

Courage Robbers: The Top 10 Things Men Fear Most

Why We Need More Sheepdogs And Less Hashtags!

Favorite Quotes

Cool Scripture

Never Out Of The Fight!

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