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061ed14 Hear me, gentlemen: true men do things--manly things. Mere males who want to seem like men just talk. Manhood is in the doing. There Stephen Mansfield
99da658 Here is the lesson: Great men and women of God are not exempt from hurt and offense. Instead, enduring the wounds of fellow Christians with mercy and grace seems to be the call of every true saint, and we should not expect it to be any different in our own lives. Stephen Mansfield
b75560f It is not enough that the mess is cleaned up, like a house being prepared for company. We can only be satisfied when the condition of our hearts that led to the mess in the first place is challenged, healed, and turned onto a healthy, Christlike path. Stephen Mansfield
b4189be we will never become the men we are called to be unless we learn the art of friendship and intentionally cultivate deep, meaningful, rowdy relationships with other men. Stephen Mansfield
9adbff0 But you will always be tempted and you need to know this. The devil is trying to shape your life with wounding and offense in order to keep you from a life defined by the purposes of God. Stephen Mansfield
14b1405 The more you rehearse the wrongs against you and the more you stay in that trap, the more the syringes of bitterness release their toxins into your soul. Stephen Mansfield
977a6b6 The solution is to forgive, to let go of the bait in that trap and pull yourself free. Stephen Mansfield
4ef062e Second, a man is meant to carry such responsibility that he will descend into exhaustion and resentment if he does not have the inner resources that come from living in connection with God. This is much the same for women, but that is the subject for another book by another author. The issue for men is, as much as they might try, they cannot do what they are assigned to do without strength and energy beyond their own. Stephen Mansfield
06246c6 WE MUST DEVELOP AND MAINTAIN THE CAPACITY TO FORGIVE. HE WHO IS DEVOID OF THE POWER TO FORGIVE IS DEVOID OF THE POWER TO LOVE. THERE IS SOME GOOD IN THE WORST OF US AND SOME EVIL IN THE BEST OF US. WHEN WE DISCOVER THIS, WE ARE LESS PRONE TO HATE OUR ENEMIES." --Martin Luther King Jr., from "Loving Your Enemies," a sermon delivered at the Dexter Avenue Baptist Church in Montgomery, Alabama," Stephen Mansfield
400eb70 Because of what a man is meant to be for his family, his society, and his God, he cannot allow failure and loss to destroy him. He should live knowing that such seasons are possible, and he should have a firm grasp on the truth that will help him rebuild. Stephen Mansfield
5f10a53 FAR BETTER IT IS TO DARE MIGHTY THINGS, TO WIN GLORIOUS TRIUMPHS, EVEN THOUGH CHECKERED BY FAILURE, THAN TO TAKE RANK WITH THOSE POOR SPIRITS WHO NEITHER ENJOY NOR SUFFER TOO MUCH, BECAUSE THEY LIVE IN THE GRAY TWILIGHT THAT KNOWS NOT VICTORY NOR DEFEAT." --Theodore Roosevelt, in his speech "The Strenuous Life, A Speech before the Hamilton Club," Chicago, April 10, 1899" Stephen Mansfield
e38486b Passive men wait for knowledge to come to them. Weak men assume what they need to know will seek them out. Men of great character and drive search out the knowledge they need. Stephen Mansfield
c2aceb6 How many men have failed to stay intellectually sharp and so gave up ground in their professions to others with more active minds? How many have lost money through uninformed investments or have not taken opportunities in expanding fields or have missed promotions because they had not bothered to learn about new technologies or what changes social media, for example, would bring to their jobs? Stephen Mansfield
871979c A man ought to invest in knowledge because it is part of living in this world fully engaged and glorifying God. Yet our times also make it essential. Stephen Mansfield
3f9e817 men know themselves, work to understand their God-ordained uniqueness and their unique brand of damage, and accept they will always be a work in progress, always be a one-man construction project that is never quite finished in this life. Stephen Mansfield
7f50ba9 Men acquire a particular quality by constantly acting a particular way . . . you become just by performing just actions, temperate by performing temperate actions, brave by performing brave actions. Stephen Mansfield
8f10a68 While Churchill was relieving himself, one of the leading nationalizers entered the room and began doing his business right next to Churchill. The irritated conservative moved to the far end of the trough. "Feeling a bit stand off-ish today, Winston?" the new arrival asked mockingly. "No," growled Churchill. "But whenever you see anything big, you want to nationalize it." Stephen Mansfield
8dde811 men know that Churchill was stating a broad truth about an important matter. You liberals are nationalizing everything you can in our society. But, listen up: it isn't yours! It shouldn't be nationalized just because it is big! And you're probably just envious anyway! Stephen Mansfield
162d62b Finally, in more serious situations, man humor confronts fear and prepares the heart for action. It's a tool for dealing with danger, quieting panic, and calling comrades to prepare to charge. Call it gallows humor. Call it foxhole humor. Wherever it happens, it is how men use the sometimes crass but always funny comment to force a laugh and encourage their brothers-in-arms. Stephen Mansfield
b0e5a0d Merely having an open mind is nothing; the object of opening the mind, as of opening the mouth, is to shut it again on something solid. Stephen Mansfield
bb1bac3 I've searched all the parks in all the cities and found no statues of committees. Stephen Mansfield
985cd92 The poor have sometimes objected to being governed badly; the rich have always objected to being governed at all. Stephen Mansfield
379f544 Historians Will and Ariel Durant have written in The Story of Civilization: The Reformation that at the time of Luther, "a gallon of beer per day was the usual allowance per person, even for nuns." This may help to explain why beer figures so prominently in the life and writings of the great reformer. He was German, after all, and he lived at a time when beer was the European drink of choice. Moreover, having been freed from what he conside.. Stephen Mansfield
1b393f9 We are not enemies, but friends. We must not be enemies. Though passion may have strained it must not break our bonds of affections. The mystic chords of memory, stretching from every battlefield and patriot grave to every living heart and hearth-stone all over this broad land, will yet swell the chorus of the Union, when again touched, as surely they will be, by the better angels of our nature. Stephen Mansfield
9a51052 A second legacy from Nancy might seem more a curse than a gift, but it may have helped to give us the Lincoln our nation reveres. She would pass on to him her own struggle with depression, with that enveloping darkness that lurks, for some, ever at the soul's door. This would merge with a Lincoln family heritage of mental illness to become a force in Abraham that he fought to subdue all his days. It would leave him scarred, and it would eve.. Stephen Mansfield
cb2d807 Abraham Lincoln avoided the extremes of his family's psychological deformities, but he still suffered from a dark, draining, despair-inducing force that seemed at times to bore into the center of his being. Shortly after Lincoln's death, Herndon described his slain friend as "a sad looking man: his melancholy dripped from him as he walked."17 Townspeople reported that he was indeed the saddest-looking man they had ever known. Lincoln's frie.. Stephen Mansfield
4289b68 So we forgive. We send away the wrongs done to us. We let people out of the little cages we keep them in while we enjoy our feelings of moral superiority. We hand the feelings of wrong to God and refuse to ever take them back. Then we shut up and never mention the matter again. When the time comes, we put our arm around the offender and we ask him how he is. Stephen Mansfield
7425257 Nonetheless, Lincoln's story is, in part, that of a man who beat back the spirits that came for him in the night. He might well have been crushed by his woes, by the death of the first son and then the second, by the madness of his wife, or the hatred of his foes--even by the devils in his thoughts. He did not yield, though, not ultimately. As important, he mined the valleys of depression for what riches he could find. He emerged to see lif.. Stephen Mansfield
332ee02 A second legacy from Nancy might seem more a curse than a gift, but it may have helped to give us the Lincoln our nation reveres. She would pass on to him her own struggle with depression, with that enveloping darkness that lurks, for some, ever at the soul's door. This would merge with a Lincoln family heritage of mental illness to become a force in Abraham that he fought to subdue all his days. It would leave him scarred, and it would eve.. Stephen Mansfield
1ef8858 But running from emotional pain is never a good idea, as it only leaves us damaged of soul and hindered in our ability to fulfill our purpose. We have to turn and face our torturous seasons and the scars they try to leave on our hearts. Stephen Mansfield
a90d926 It is a great art of living to be able to hear truth in the mouth of your enemies. Even those who hate you and mean to hurt you may still be right about what they see in your life. Though they shout their observations and probably intend them to wound you rather than help you, still they are giving you insight that can help you improve. Stephen Mansfield
c9223a1 The happy life is regarded as a life in conformity with virtue. It is a life which involves effort and is not spent in amusement." --Aristotle, from The Nicomachean Ethics" Stephen Mansfield
d9c46db What we want and need in our bitter, rebellious times is God, but unwilling to turn fully to him, we reach for idols and forfeit his intended grace. Stephen Mansfield
fcd614c A man is known by the company he keeps. We all know that we can tell a great deal about people by looking at those they call friends. It is also true that we can tell a great deal about ourselves by what our friends do when we hit hard times. Stephen Mansfield
257d541 Facing the reality of that painful season when it felt as though you were in a sandstorm with no skin is the key to becoming whole now. Stephen Mansfield
30de91f find it interesting, given the controversies over alcohol that would eventually erupt in the history of the Christian church, that the arrival of Christianity in the world and its eventual sway over the empire did not diminish the Roman love of beer. For the early Christians, drunkenness was the sin--as their apostles had repeatedly taught--and not the consumption of alcohol. After all, their Lord had miraculously created wine at a wedding .. Stephen Mansfield
eacfc77 Every Christian has a capacity for the most magnificent Christlikeness. Yet, every Christian also has the potential to commit the most disgusting and horrible acts of the flesh. Stephen Mansfield
d66e820 To know gritty truth about life straight from the pages of Scripture is part of the grace of God and allows us to live safely and effectively in a fallen world. Stephen Mansfield
85da158 Far better to know people for the cruel creatures that they are, and to love them despite their flaws, than to love them as we wish them to be and constantly be disappointed and hurt. Stephen Mansfield
0f5e968 John Wesley drank wine, was something of an ale expert, and often made sure that his Methodist preachers were paid in one of the vital currencies of the day--rum. His brother, Charles Wesley, was known for the fine port, Madeira, and sherry he often served in his home; the journals of George Whitefield are filled with references to his enjoyment of alcohol. Stephen Mansfield
890bc72 Psalm 23:3 every day. Lord, please be my good shepherd and restore my soul. Stephen Mansfield
c38c845 By doing rather than merely studying, we create a culture. Newcomers and the young feed on that culture. They watch. They do. They, too, are changed. Our culture expands. You Americans create a system of thought. The most you ask is that people contemplate new ideas. You might ask them to give or to sometimes attend meetings, but no contagious culture is created. Stephen Mansfield
17ad588 Take all of this book upon reason that you can, and the balance on faith, and you will live and die a happier and better man. Stephen Mansfield
a88215a QUALITIES OF A GREAT GENERAL" 1. Tactically aggressive (loves a fight) 2. Strength of character 3. Steadiness of purpose 4. Acceptance of responsibility 5. Energy 6. Good health and strength George Patton Cadet" Stephen Mansfield