Boys to Men
“Be a man”
“Man up”
“You aren’t a boy anymore!”
I will be frankly and brutally honest with you: I cannot tell you how young I was the first time that I was told to “man up”. All I can say is that I was really young when I first started hearing the other men in my life tell me stuff like that. It’s only when I grew up, like many of the people who are reading this, that I really started to question what that meant. The only place that I thought was worth listening to in this case was the Bible: what does the Bible have to say about being a man.
There are two verses that highlight it very well for me. The first verse comes in 1 Corinthians 16:3 - 4:
Be watchful, stand firm in the faith, act like men, be strong. Let all that you do be done in love.
- 1 Corinthians 16:3 - 4
The second verse in question is Psalms 1:1 - 2
Blessed is the man who walks not in the counsel of the wicked, nor stands in the way of sinners, nor sits in the seat of scoffers;but his delight is in the law of the Lord, and on his law he meditates day and night.
- Psalms 1:1 - 2
Looking at both these verses, I saw two simple things that I believe that can turn a boy into a man. We need to have qualities such as strength and bravery, as I was told when I was child, but it has to be done in love. These qualities need to all be done in love. The second thing, which ties with the first one, is that love can only come from the Father, who teaches us all things through His word.
Take the time to reflect and evaluate yourself. If you’re a boy, are you turning into the man that the world wants you to be or the one that The Lord wants you to be? Do you base your growth around the Word of God or the word of man? If you’re a girl, how can you help the boys in your life become righteous men? I believe that it takes the help of all of us to become the person that the Father wants us to be.