NEW EVENING CLASSES FOR MEN
Note: due to the complexity and level of difficulty, each course will accept a maximum of eight participants
sign up early and get a discount on registration
The course covers two days, and topics covered in this course include:
DAY ONE
HOW TO FILL ICE CUBE TRAYS
Step by step guide with slide presentation
TOILET ROLLS- DO THEY GROW ON THE HOLDERS?
Roundtable discussion
DIFFERENCES BETWEEN LAUNDRY BASKET & FLOOR
Practicing with hamper (Pictures and graphics)
DISHES & SILVERWARE; DO THEY LEVITATE/FLY TO KITCHEN SINK OR DISHWASHER BY THEMSELVES?
Debate among a panel of experts.
LOSS OF VIRILITY
Losing the remote control to your significant other – Help line and support groups
LEARNING HOW TO FIND THINGS
Starting with looking in the right place instead of turning the house upside down while screaming – Open forum
DAY TWO
EMPTY MILK BAGS; DO THEY BELONG IN THE FRIDGE OR THE GARBAGE?
Group discussion and role play
HEALTH WATCH; BRINGING HER FLOWERS IS NOT HARMFUL TO YOUR HEALTH
PowerPoint presentation
REAL MEN ASK FOR DIRECTIONS WHEN LOST
An actual real life testimonial from the one man who did!
IS IT GENETICALLY IMPOSSIBLE TO SIT QUIETLY AS SHE PARALLEL PARKS?
Driving simulation
LIVING WITH ADULTS; BASIC DIFFERENCES BETWEEN YOUR MOTHER AND YOUR PARTNER
Online class and role playing
HOW TO BE THE IDEAL SHOPPING COMPANION
Relaxation exercises, meditation and deep-breathing techniques
REMEMBERING IMPORTANT DATES & CALLING WHEN YOU’RE GOING TO BE LATE
Bring your calendar or palm pilot to class
GETTING OVER IT; LEARNING HOW TO LIVE WITH BEING WRONG ALL THE TIME
Individual counsellors and Kleenex available
Succeeding as a Father
There was an aging father who lived in the south and he had one son. He was a big kid and as a result they called him Bubba. Bubba’s mom died when he was little and he was quite close to his father as he grew up. His dad eaked out a living as a handyman but his real love was gardening. He was particularly proud of his vegetable garden, and specifically his potatoes. Every spring Bubba would work with his father to dig up the potato patch and work the soil into hills so his dad could plant potatoes.
Eventually Bubba fell in with some good for nothing boys and eventually he found himself in prison for armed robbery. His father sent him a very sad letter one day explaining that at his age and with his arthritic condition, it looked like this year he would not be able to dig up the field beside the house to plant his potatoes, without Bubba there to help.
Bubba thought about this for a little while and then sat down and wrote the following note to his dad.
Dear Dad:
Sorry to hear that you aren’t feelin’ too well and that you can’t dig up the field next to the house, but listen – whatever you do – don’t dig up that field. That’s where I hid the bodies! Please just forget about it dad. I’m sorry I’m not able to come home and help you with another area.
Love, Bubba.
The next day 150 FBI agents with shovels and picks arrived at his fathers house and they dug all day long looking for bodies.
The next day another letter came to Bubba’s father:
Dear Dad: I knew I couldn’t come myself to dig up the potato field for you so I figured out another way to get it dug up for you. Go ahead and plant your potatoes now.
Love, Bubba.
Today I want to take just a few minutes to address the dads among us and the rest of you can listen in if you like. Success in God’s eyes is so often, so different than the standard we see in the world. Our society calls on dads, and husbands to be successful and usually the pressure is oriented towards achievement and success in the workplace.
I want to suggest to you that no matter how blessed a man is in his job and his financial pursuits, if a man is not a success in his family – he is not a success. In Eph. 6:4, Paul distils in one verse the primary calling and responsibility of Fathers. “And, you fathers, do not provoke your children to wrath, but bring them up in the training and admonition of the Lord.” A father has two primary responsibilities that scripture places on him towards his children.
1.) Communication
2.) Education
and these responsibilities are in that order. If the lines of communication are not worked on every day and kept open, then the attempt to educate our children will be frustrated. It is not enough for a father to give instruction, the child must have the relationship with his dad that he or she will receive it. Dads need to take TIME, (that’s the prerequisite,) to cultivate a personal relationship and friendship with each child and to understand their uniqueness and differences. Discipline that will snap one child to obedient attention, may crush anther. No two children are the same and what works well with one may not work well with the other, so time spent with the kids in communication becomes critical.
The entire Bible clearly sees the home as a microcosm of the church, and God has a prescribed divine order for both to receive maximum blessing. In Deut.11:18-21 we read:
“Therefore you shall lay up My words in your heart and in your soul; … and shall teach them to your children, speaking of them when you sit in your house, and when you are out walking, when you lie down and when you get up. And you shall write them on the doorposts of your house and on your gates, that your days and the days of your children may be multiplied in the land of which the Lord swore to your fathers to give them, like the days of the heavens above the earth.”
God places the responsibility of teaching our children first and foremost on dads. Now moms work together with dad in this and Sunday School, church and Christian programming will help, but it is dad who bears the greatest responsibility before God. We are not just talking a family devotional time here, although that is needed and precious. The scripture we have just read indicates that fathers are to be constantly teaching their kids in the things of the Lord.
The late Dr. R.V. Redman, past president of Wheaton College said in one of his books, “If I had it to do over again, I would want to simply spend more time with my children talking to them through the every day activities of life. Often the simplest things, are the most clearly remembered. The way dad reacts to a crisis. The way dad found personal growth and instruction in his own life. The way dad thought about and cared for others. These are things that can be observed in a relationship, and they are better caught than taught.”
Christ’s role with regard to the church is that of a prophet, priest and King. He represents God to humanity, He represents humanity to God and as King, He governs the affairs of humanity. Father’s have three distinct callings within their own homes. They too are called upon to be prophets, representing God to their families, and that demands an intimate, two way relationship with God. That doesn’t happen by accident. It takes time, effort, and a love for God. Then, fathers are called to be a priest in their home, lifting their children and wife to the Lord daily and crying out to God for His intervention to meet the needs in their lives. That doesn’t happen by accident either. It takes time, effort, and a great love for your children and wife. Time does not permit me today to go into all the many scriptures that establish these points, like Ex. 12 we spoke of last week, where the Father took the hyssop branch and sprinkled the doorposts and lintel for the protection of everyone in his house. In many NT references Jesus told fathers they needed to express faith for the healing of their children. Mark 9:20-29 tells of a demon possessed child, and in Luke 8:41-56 we read of Jarius, who came to Jesus out of love for his sick daughter.
The third calling fathers have in scripture is the office of King. As a King, fathers are to govern their own homes well. In 1Tim.3:4, and Titus 1:6 we see that spiritual leaders who are fathers, must rule their own homes well. The word “Rule” Paul uses concerning the father over his family in 1 Tim.3:4, indicates an exercising of governmental authority, or where the buck stops to use a more modern colloquialism. There is a distinct relationship between leadership in the home and leadership in the church.
We need to face up to one simple, obvious fact. If our religion doesn’t work at home, it doesn’t work period! For Jesus sake we ought not to try to export something to the world of our religious ideal and belief if it isn’t working at home. This old sin-cursed world has enough problems of its own. The problem we face in our society is that men have reneged on their responsibility before God to lead. The church in recent decades has become more and more matriarchal, because men just sit back and renege on their divine calling to lead. In most Christian homes, the wife is the one who more frequently prays with the kids, reads them bible stories, and talks with them about spiritual matters. That is wonderful and good and should not be discontinued, but friends we also need to recognize that moms as the spiritual head of the home is not the way God designed it or wants it.
Now before some of you dear sisters start throwing things at me, let me just say, I am not talking about men lording it over women and children. The bible teaches clearly a leadership style for men that is humble, and finds its fulfilment in self-sacrificing servanthood. Men are to love their wives and children and be willing to lay down their lives for them as Christ did for the church, but this same instructive portion of scripture in Eph.5 clearly says in verses 22 to 24 that wives are to submit to their husbands and be subject to them in everything. Leaders are supposed to lead! Most wives who lead in the decisions of the home and family today do it by default because SOMEBODY has to, and because the husband has reneged on his responsibility to lead.
Men, rise up and be men! Answer the high holy calling of God in your life! The greatest and first way to do that is in humble repentance to turn to the Lord and to seek his counsel, in every issue, every day. It is out of the strength of your relationship with the lord that you will have strength in your relationship with your wife and children. You need to set standards within your home consistent with the choices you yourself make. You need to be willing to back up those standards with discipline when training is needed.
YOU ARE THE ONE BEING TRAINED BY YOUR CHILDREN WHEN YOU HEAR YOURSELF TELLING THEM TO DO THE SAME THING MORE THAN ONCE. You must lead by example in your life. I have always loved this little poem since first hearing it years ago:
“A careful man I ought to be.
A little fellow follows me.
I do not dare to go astray,
For fear he’ll go the self same way.
Not once can I escape his eyes,
Whate’re he sees me do, he tries.
Like me, he says he’s going to be
This little man who follows me.
I must remember as I go,
Through summer sun and winter snow,
I’m moulding for the years to be –
This little man who follows me.
In Malachi 4:5-6 we read these words:
“Behold, I will send you Elijah the prophet before the coming of the great and terrible day of the Lord; And he shall turn the hearts of the fathers to the children and the heart of the children to their fathers, lest I come and smite the earth with a curse.”
I believe we are nearing the time of Christ’s return. The signs of the times are everywhere! We are approaching what the bible calls the great and terrible day of the Lord. God is going to move in righteous judgement upon the earth, but God, ever-true to His character of love, is pouring out his spirit in unprecedented ways on fathers to turn their hearts toward the children and on children to realize their need for mentors and fathers. That is one reason why God has raised up organizations like “Promise Keepers.”
I close with this true story,
“At a Promise Keepers rally in Denton, Tx. pastor James Ryle shared in testimony;
When he was 2 years old, his father was sent to prison. When he was 7, authorities placed him in an orphanage. At 19 he caused a car wreck that killed a good friend. He sold drugs to raise money for his legal fees, and the law caught up with him finally… he was arrested … charged with a felony and sent to prison.
While in prison, James accepted Christ as his Saviour, was eventually released and went into ministry. Years later James decided to try and track down the father he had not seen since he was 2, with the hope of reconciliation in mind. He eventually found him and after a time of conversation the subject turned to prison life.
James father asked, “What prison did you do your time in?” When James told him the father was obviously taken back. He explained that he had helped to build that prison. During his own time in prison he had become a welder and after his release he worked for the state building prisons and penitentiaries all over the country. Pastor Ryle concluded his testimony to the men of the Promise Keepers rally in Denton with these words, “I was in the prison my father had built.” A father’s example builds a palace or a prison for his kids. How are you building men?