Men: ‘20 Minutes to Change Your Marriage’

Davis Carman/Mike Seaver (HT: Eric Hartman)

Survey finds men want less hugging in church, more hymns of proclamation

Anne Thomas, Christian Today

Listen to Your Lady!

Produced by Central Christian Church in Las Vegas, Nevada
(Video HT: COLLIDE)

‘6 ways to meet your wife’s need for affection’

Gary and Barbara Rosberg, Crosswalk.com (HT: titus2talk)

I’m watching you, Dad

Review of Steve Farrar’s God Built

by John Starke, at the Gender Blog:

“Steve Farrar aims to beef up his reader’s theology. Farrar assumes his readers desire to become a stronger Christian man, and his advice to accomplish that is to learn what God’s providence is and how to trust in it. The titles of each of his chapter begin “He is in Control Over….” losses, events, broken hopes, etc. To become a stronger, godly man is to know and trust in the sovereign providence of God. Amen.”

“Reading is for Boys”

The first in a series of posts on encouraging boys to read, by Jeff Robinson, is up at the Gender Blog:

“I am thankful for a father who told me at a young age: ‘Son, you’re not much of a man if you don’t read good books and learn from them …’”

Fathers, step up

Douglas Wilson posts on the importance of dads:

“When a child has grown up under the devastation of unmitting harshness (and sometimes not so unwitting), or the devastation of neglect, the one thing a father may not say is that it ‘was not that big a deal.’ Of course it was a big deal. Your child is (hopefully) going to be praying the Lord’s Prayer for the rest of his life. What will naturally, readily, come to mind whenever he starts, whenever he says, ‘Our Father . . .’ What does that mean to him, and who taught it to him?”

Being thankful: women 312, men 0

There seem to be a lot of posts by women on thankfulness, but not so many by the guys.

Just yesterday, Sue Bohlin posted on “Turning Thanksgiving Inside Out” at the Tapestry blog.

“It’s not too hard to come up with a list of reasons to grump about the Thanksgiving holiday:
 
•    Lots of work in the kitchen
•    Lots of cleaning to do
•    Lots of cooking to do
•    Lots of buying food to do
•    Spending time with family where the worst in people easily spills out
•    Crowds in the stores as we prepare
•    The stores already have their Christmas decorations out—like since Halloween
•    Too much football on TV
•    Too much food
 
But to cultivate a biblical mindset, we can take this list and turn it inside out to reveal the embarrassment of riches and lavishment of blessings that are attached to each item by invoking our own personal thanksgiving:
 
Lots of work in the kitchen: Thank You, Lord, that I have a fully functioning kitchen! Thank You for my stove and my oven and my refrigerator and my sink and my counters and my storage of my many many kitchen items.”

And at Rebecca Writes, the womenfolk have been expressing their gratitude on a daily basis!
 
What’s up, fellas?

Books for men and women

Nathan Pitchford reviews Douglas Bond’s Fathers and Sons: Hold Fast in a Broken World, at Reformation Theology:

“This is a book that both fathers and sons would do well to come to: sons, to drink from the well of practical wisdom, and fathers to encounter an example to be followed.”

(Buy a copy. See also Fathers and Sons: Stand Fast in the Way of Truth.)

And Sarah J. Flashing reviews Practical Theology for Women, by Wendy Horger Alsup:

This is an excellent book for the young or mature woman in Christ. There is nothing about it that says “this book is for girls,” so for those who typically avoid pink, frilly devotionals, this book is for you.”

ATTN: MEN

You might learn something from this post at the UK blog, Unfurling Flower. Its author Emily writes:

“Not long ago, I got chatting to a fellow Newfrontiers blogger, Luke Davydaitis, about how girls and guys function differently and how fascinating it is to find out more about how the other works. This then prompted the idea of doing a blog collaboration — where we asked each other five common questions about each other’s gender as a whole, and then did our best to answer them.”

The questions:

1. What things do we (men) do that you really like, and what do we do that you don’t like?
2. What do you talk about with friends when there are no members of the opposite sex around?
3. What should we do when you’re upset?
4. What’s the most important thing we don’t understand about you? and …
5. Why do you like such terrible films?

Is being a stay-at-home dad a sin? (update)

“Sometimes it is.”

Read part one of Jared Wilson’s essay.

(Update 10/13) Part two is now up.

If your right hand causes you to sin …

Some musings on castration at Out of Ur. No kidding.

Books, books, books

Four new book reviews:

1. The Emerging Church: A Model for Change & A Map for Renewal, by Bruce Sanguin. Reviewed by Jonathan Brink at emergent village.
2. The Crucifixion of Ministry: Surrendering Our Ambitions to the Service of Christ, by Andrew Purves. Reviewed by Jason Button at Sharper Iron.
3. The Kind of Man Every Man Should Be: Taking a Stand for True Masculinity, by Kevin McCullough. Reviewed by Tom Parsons at Stones Cry Out.
4. Why Can’t We Be Good?, by Jason Needleman. Reviewed by ochuk at 20 times around the block.

And ‘The Truth About Christian Bookstores‘ at Cerulean Sanctum.

Boyhood to manhood, explained (updated)

Owen Strachan offers a scriptural blueprint (parts one and two) at the Gender Blog, which he admits is heavily informed by his mentor, Al Mohler. Mohler is putting together a work entitled From Boy to Man: The Marks of Manhood, which is being blogged on here.

(UPDATE: here’s part three)

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