My name Is Eduardo Quintana, I am 47 years old, I am married and I have three very young sons. If you are like me and like most men my age or if you are from my generation, you probably feel that the task of being a man in this day and age is almost impossible. And you are right! By yourself, it is impossible but with God's help and the help of many other manly and Godly men, you can do it! When my wife and I got married 23 years ago and we decided we would have a family, I made a decision to be there for my children. I was, however, unaware of God's perfect plan for our lives. You see, 19 years later, we were still unable to conceive a baby. Isaiah 54:13
All your children shall be taught by the Lord, and great shall be the peace of your children. So we adopted! As a side note, if you are thinking about adopting but you are afraid of it, don't be! It is the most rewarding experience you can have and yes, you will love those kids just as much as if you had conceived them! Or more!
Building a family is a lot harder than I thought it was going to be. It requires tons of sacrifice and dedication to even begin sustaining it. And it will require a life time of Godly devotion to make it work. Ephesians 6:4 Fathers, do not provoke your children to anger, but bring them up in the discipline and instruction of the Lord. Men, Let me tell you what the biggest enemy you face is. It's yourself and your pride (whatever pride you have left after the radical feminists have stripped you of your worth). Wow! Where did that come from? I'm not trying to get political here, just trying to wake you up to the reality of the world that we are living in. Before I start getting a bunch of emails about this, I am not anti-feminist but I think the radical feminist movement has taken it too far. I believe in equal pay for equal work regardless of your gender. I believe in equal opportunity for both men and women. However, the radical feminist movement, in its pursuit for supremacy, has gone too far and this is taking a toll on our families today. Three years ago the radical feminist movement tried to pass a law making it illegal for men to urinate standing up. If this isn't taking it too far, then I don't know what is. As a result of this movement and many other social factors, many families are broken and fatherless ( this however is material for different blog).
Today, Fatherless homes are the norm. Whether it's because the father is working two jobs and can't spend time with the kids or because dad has abandoned his post, too many homes are fatherless. A few years ago Hallmark had a great idea. They donated Mother's Day cards to men in prison. Every prison in the United States, all 200,000 inmates across the nation had access to get a free Mother's Day card to send to their moms. Pretty soon, Hallmark had to send more cards to keep up with the demand. This was so successful that they tried to do the same thing for Father's Day. Very few men came to participate in the father's day celebration. Less than 0.25% came to the Hallmark Father's Day event. When asked, the inmates replied "I hate my father", "I never knew my father", "I would never do anything nice for that man".
What about abusive relationships? I am glad you asked! In abusive relationships, it's better to get out then to risk your life. I applaud women who have successfully broken the power that an abusive husband has over her and her children. But if you look hard, that abusive man has a complete lack of understanding of what it means to be a husband, a father and a man. Yet in other cases, fatherless homes exist because of a premature death. To those families, my heart goes out to them. My dad passed away when he was only 38 years old. He had a massive heart attack. I know all too well the pains and struggles that children will face in fatherless homes when there has been such a tragedy. I can't believe how young my dad was when he passed. I have already lived 9 years more than my dad did! There are many reasons why homes are fatherless, but the fact is that these homes exist and we need to start making a difference one home at a time. Our young people and our children need those male role models more desperately now than ever before. If you're a dad, it's your calling. If you are a grandfather, it is your responsibility. If you're an uncle, a friend or Just a man without kids of his own, I urge you to get involved in the future of our kids. You don't have to adopt three boys like my wife and I did. There are many ways to get involved. But the most important thing to remember is your calling as a man! Here is a quote that pretty much sums it up.
“Once upon a time, men wore the pants, and wore them well. Women rarely had to open doors and little old ladies never crossed the street alone. Men took charge because that’s what they did. But somewhere along the way, the world decided it no longer needed men. Disco by disco, latte by foamy non-fat latte, men were stripped of their khakis and left stranded on the road between boyhood and androgyny. But today, there are questions our genderless society has no answers for. The world sits idly by as cities crumble, children misbehave and those little old ladies remain on one side of the street. For the first time since bad guys, we need heroes. We need grown-ups. We need men to put down the plastic fork, step away from the salad bar and untie the world from the tracks of complacency. It’s time to get your hands dirty. It’s time to answer the call of manhood. It’s time to WEAR THE PANTS.”
