Interesting Take on What Makes a Man a Man… (Funny Video)
You may or may not believe this video. I’m still not exactly sure what this preacher was talking about, or why he was talking about it. Before you watch it, let’s clarify what makes a male a man (a TrueMan)… virtue. Virtue is what makes a male a man. Prudence, Fortitude, Justice and Temperance. Faith, Hope and Love. Live them. (In Latin, virtus means manliness.) Here’s the video, have a good laugh.
Man up!
What is a Woman’s Role in Helping to Create a Culture of TrueManhood?
— GUEST POST from CATHERINE DiNUZZO, MA LPC (Wife of Dave DiNuzzo) —
When Dave asked me to write a guest post on his site, I was very excited because I believe that to truly change the current situation of manliness in society and to be able to change it to a (virtuous) culture of TrueManhood, men are only a portion of the solution. Another important part in this change are women!
When I first met Dave he was not the man that he is today. Now, I am not going to say that it was because of me alone that he has decided to “change his ways”, but I will say that it was a series of challenges that I posed to him, that began his transformation into the man he is today.
Dave has always been a man who was not afraid to fight for justice and for what he believes in. However, when I met him, he was focused on doing it “Dave’s way”. I remember one time when we were dating when we got into a fight about something trivial, and he told me, “there’s Dave’s way and the wrong way”. This was the way he dealt with stuff – his way… and passionately! Now, what I have always loved about Dave is his passion and self-confidence, but this was an example of a time in his life when he was less-than-virtuous. What I feel Dave was lacking in his life when I first met him was – what I feel most men are missing – a woman to challenge and expect virtuous behavior. Looking back on it now, I don’t think Dave ever knew what to strive for because the women in his life never challenged him to obtain TrueManhood.
The question I pose is “how are we to expect men to behave a certain way, if we (women in general) lower our standards and accept mediocrity?” We simply cannot.
My goal as a guest blogger for Truemanhood.com is to help give women the tools to believe in their own value enough to expect the best out of the men in their lives. I agree whole-heartily with Dave, that if we are going to change the world, we must create a world of truly virtuous men; aka: TrueMen! Also, if we are expecting men to make this change then is it going to take the women of the world to step up and embody their roll in the change.
I hope you continue to check the site as I will be posting regularly. Please pass this along to your female friends… this is a journey that is meant for all of us.
Woman up!
~Catherine
How Men Were Created To Pray
In response to a comment, stemming from a recent post: The question was asked, “How were men created to pray?” Please note, this post, as with all my posts, comes from my experiences and may or may not take into account every aspect of the topic. If you have additional thoughts, questions, doubts or replies, please write them in a comment below.
I believe that men were created to pray in a manner that is wild, unrelenting and strong. What do I mean by that? I mean that a man has to pray in the same way that he was created. It doesn’t make sense to do it any other way. We were created, as evidenced in the creation story in The Book of Genesis, to protect, defend and guide. (See Genesis chapter 2, specifically verse 15). Adam was instructed by God to do all these things as the man, the one who has dominion over the earth and the creatures of the land, air and sea. This was no small task. Adam was given a great amount of responsibility. Until the fall, Adam relied totally on God to direct and guide him. We should take this as a guide – that in all things, we should ask God to direct and guide us. After the fall, Adam was distanced from God and he toiled in the fields. This is where we find ourselves today. We toil, in whatever profession we have, and specifically, we toil in a real way when it comes to our conversations with God. Why is this?
The Catechism of the Catholic Church, in paragraph 397, explains this clearly. It says, “Man, tempted by the devil, let his trust in his Creator die in his heart and, abusing his freedom, disobeyed God’s command.” We do this daily! No wonder it’s so hard to pray!
If we know that we must trust God and that we must have reckless abandonment to God’s commands, then it will help us to pray. If we know that we were created to protect, defend and guide others, it will help us to pray. Now, some practicals:
- Find what works for you. We’re all different and there are many different ways to pray. Whatever your preference, do it often!
- Remember that prayer is a relationship with God. It takes two; God always does His part. Are you doing yours?
- Make your life a prayer. Every chance you get, talk/listen to God. (Guess what, you’ve got lots of chances to do this during your day!)
- A Man was created with a wildness within his heart – live wildly for God. Your prayer can be wild, rugged and intense.
- Do it often. Did I mention this already?
- Prayer is NOT an emotional thing; emotions may come about during/after prayer, but prayer itself is not emotional. Our prayer is based on our faith – if our faith is founded on the Truth, then it is stable and unchanging and our prayer must follow that model. If our faith isn’t founded on the Truth, then our faith (belief in God and His dominion over us) can change as quickly as the wind.
- Use helpful “tricks” to guide your prayer. One easy one is ACTS – Adoration Contrition Thanksgiving Supplication. Adoration is praising God, adoring Him, fervent worship of Him and His glory. Contrition is asking for forgiveness for our sins; NOT in place of Confession! Thanksgiving is thanking God for the blessings in our lives. Supplication is asking God for the things that we need in life.
I suggest that you read up on men of the Bible, as well as Catholic saints, to get more ideas on how men pray. Find one of these men that you share similarities with and try to emulate him and his style of prayer. These men came before us and succeeded (and sometimes failed) in order to pave the way for us.
Man up!
Scandalous Commercial – Bad Manning
Have you seen the new Peyton Manning, DirecTV – NFL Sunday Ticket Commercial? I saw it today. Blah. The commercial has Manning not “manning up” but instead, giving into the all-mighty-endorsement-deal-dollar – and NOT being anything even remotely close to a TrueMan. I used to have so much more respect for him. The commercial is supposed to be about watching football, and seeing every game on NFL Sunday Ticket, in HD. Yet, there isn’t a single scene of a football player, play, ball or locker room. The entire commercial is scenes of scantily clad cheerleaders strutting around, doing high kicks and bouncing up and down.
Manning has the opportunity to endorse lots of products, and some of his endorsements have been great. (Most of his commercial spots are hilarious.) What I don’t understand is why Manning, and society in general, thinks that it’s okay to objectify women by showing them in this manner? I fault the cheerleaders for objectifying themselves, but they’re only doing what appears to be glamorous by society’s standards. I want to call to action the men involved; if men step up, women will gladly follow suit. That means Peyton, the men at DirecTV, men watching that network and men reading this post.
Come on Peyton. Did you have to stoop to this level? Why didn’t you say, “There’s no football in this commercial.”? Why didn’t you say, “Nope, I won’t make sexual innuendos, they’re unnecessary. People will lose respect for me.” You didn’t. Next time, man up.
How does this affect the rest of us? How do we make a change? By starting in the home, then branching out to schools, work and in the public arena, men who hold women to a higher level of respect must first stand up to this sort of societal objectification of women. Be strong, stand firm. Your example will challenge others and will change hearts. Once a man has truly cherished a woman, in a manner most fitting within God’s plan, he’ll realize the importance of his actions. Men, we can make the difference. Change starts with you. Do it today.
Man up!
A Dating Tip, or Two
The other day, I posted the “Superman Dates” video clip. I got a little bit of feedback on it, and felt like it was important to talk about some other aspects of dating, for both ladies and guys.
Ladies: what I am about to say is always true, in every situation, no matter what. YOU DESERVE NOTHING BUT THE BEST. You do. You deserve a man who respects you, who serves you, who cherishes you, who believes and demonstrates that there is no one more important or special for him and you deserve a man who puts his full energy and attention into your relationship. If he doesn’t, then he’s not good enough for you. Plain and simple. If he doesn’t care enough to do the little things in a dating relationship, why would anyone ever expect him to start caring when you are married? Or when times get tough? Or when you have kids? The little things he does/doesn’t do while dating are foreshadowing his future behavior.
It’s also vitally important that you set you standards high, from the beginning. If you wait until you’re in a relationship to create a list of “must haves” it will be incredibly difficult to see beyond the emotion, history and investment of your current relationship. Once you create your list, don’t stray from it. (Add to it, but don’t stray from it.) If you grow, mature and change as a person, your list can change with you, as long as it’s what best for you and your future.
If all the women in the world increased their standards (and wouldn’t compromise on them) it would force men to change their behavior. Now, I’m not saying that it’s the fault of females that men can be bad in relationships or in society or that they don’t know what it means to be a TrueMan. What I’m saying is that if women were to have a standard and keep it, that men would have to check their crass, immature, childish, destructive behavior at the door and make positive choices to raise themselves up to be worthy of dating a woman. Ladies, you hold the power to make your future bright by choosing a man that deserves you because you know that you deserve the very best.
Guys: I’ll most likely get into our part of the dating world in upcoming posts, but for now, read through the ladies’ section and check yourself. If a woman had a list, would your actions, choices and behavior warrant you being selected as “sufficient”? If not, think about things you can do to change so that when “the one” comes along, you’re ready to treat her like your queen.
Man up!
Pontius Pilate, What You Did Was NOT Manly
I thought several times throughout Holy Week, as well as when I watched “The Passion of the Christ” on Friday night, that Pontius Pilate (pronounced pon-chus pi-lot) was not manly in his decisions to condemn Jesus to death. He tried, yes, at first, to tell the people that Jesus had done nothing wrong. Where he went wrong was when he worried about what sort of uprising the Jewish high priests would start and what the people would do. He let self-preservation win out over justice.
He’s infamously remembered by Catholics in our Creed (our profession of faith) “…He (Jesus) suffered under Pontius Pilate…“. This is because Pilate had the power to prevent Christ’s horrible torture, scourging, carrying of His cross and His death, but failed to act; all out of fear. He was a coward. Even the movie “The Passion of the Christ” (picture above from a scene with Pilate and Jesus) shows Pilate’s wife as a hero and a servant, with compassion and deep sorrow while Pilate simply looks on, worried about himself. Pilate leaves us with a good example of what not to do.
Christ tells us that we’ll be persecuted because of Him, because we follow Him and because we love Him. We should be ready and prepared to persevere. We prepare for this by training (prayer and fasting, mostly). When it comes down to it, who will you side with? Will you take the easy way out and deny Christ or will you stand firm in your beliefs, in your faith and in HIS love and witness for Jesus? Only time will tell.
Again, society tells men that we must look out for ourselves and self-preservation. Christ, the Church and TrueManhood.com say something different. We all say “defend Christ, defend Mother Church, defend Truth” – God will provide for us and will raise us up on the last day. A True Man does this. A man like Pontius Pilate doesn’t. What kind of man are you?
Man up!
