The Most Valuable Father’s Day Gift
I had a great Spring season leading a Journey group through my church. I mixed two Bible Studies–Lysa TerKeurst’s Made to Crave with John and Stasi Eldredge’s Captivating. We watched the DVD’s and discussed, and the two literally married each week.
This week the Captivating lesson brought John Eldredge’s Wild at Heart group. The men opened up and shared treasures–their heart and the heart of men, period. I’m still chewing on all they shared, it was like an all access pass. When I drove home, K-Love shared that men don’t want a tie, they want to feel affirmed and believed in. Those sentiments completely confirmed everything we saw on the DVD.
Here are key things I learned:
- Men need to know you believe in them. This is their top need.
- They love to feel powerful, not in a JR Ewing way, but a “I fixed the toilet and was scared about trying way.”
- They feel constant pressure, a report card of sorts, that to them, feels like they never measure up.
- Women were created by God to have a core question built into them that asks, do you think I’m lovely? Men do not want women to go to them for the answer. They can’t answer it and know it. God alone through Jesus Christ answers that core question. The same goes for men. God created them with the question, do you think I’m man enough/can I get the job done? Women can’t answer that, not to the core. Only Christ. We all have a God-sized hole, and we fill it with relationships, food, work, money, shopping, chemical addictions. Those things will never fill the hole.
- Sometimes men don’t do what women ask because of fear. With that constant report card the pressure and lie from the enemy that they don’t measure up is always there, so to not do it feels easier than failing. Men also explained if they do it, the women won’t need them. They know it’s wrong, but the fear of women not needing them is strong enough that sometimes they won’t help out, because helping meets the need.
This Father’s Day, save your money and make an investment, even if you don’t get an immediate return. Tell your dad, a father figure, the father of your children, a male friend, a boss, a sibling that they make an impact. They get the job done. That you believe in them.
Now that’s a gift.
To purchase learn more about Captivating and Wild at Heart, visit here.
