What A Man Needs....

I took three days off from work last week so I could get some things done around home. My primary focus was to convert a section of my workshop into a book storage, packaging room, and office for my part-time home business, Whizbang Books. For the past few years I have stored books and packaged orders in my house and in my workshop. It has been an unorganized operation. But that is about to change.

My shop measures 24ft by 32ft. A portion of it was an 8ft by 16ft storage bay with an overhead door. I cleaned out the bay, removed the door, and framed two windows in the opening. Then I insulated the walls and sheathed over the open studs on the inside with OSB plywood. It’s not pretty, but it was fast, and it’ll be functional.

My two youngest sons, Robert and James, helped me off and on. One day James was watching me and asked me this question:

Can you stand not doing anything?”

I wasn’t sure what he was asking. “What do you mean?,” I replied.

“I mean, can you stand not doing anything? You have so many projects. Could you stand it if you didn’t?”

My brain quickly absorbed the question, and I realized that my son has always known me to be an active person with numerous interests and projects. There are book writing projects, home improvement projects, Whizbang inventions, garden projects, and other homestead projects.

Then, out of the blue, I had an answer for him. A succinct and profound answer. That is rare for me. More often, I ramble on and on with my answers. But not this time. I said to my son:

“No, I wouldn’t be able to stand not doing anything. Do you know why that is?”

He said no and asked why.

“Because, and I want you to hear this carefully, James, every man needs three things in life. Do you know what they are?”

He said no and asked what they were.

“A man needs three things, son. A man needs a God to serve, a work to do, and a woman to love. Don’t ever forget that James.”

And that was it. I felt so wise. Now, I’ll confess that I didn’t come up with that on my own. I actually heard it from my wife. Isn’t that funny? She heard it years ago from a speaker at a home schooling convention. She thinks it was Mark Hamby.

So there you go. I really do think that sums up what a man needs. It’s something to think about. And, perhaps, someday you will have an opprtunity to share those words of wisdom with your adolescent son.

2 comments:

Barry L. Morgan said...

"A man needs three things...son"

At sixty-one, I have the benefit of looking back over the key periods of my manhood, and evaluating the validity and wisdom of that statement.

I heard recently (and I claim it as true), that a person who is age sixty in 2007, is equivalent to a person who was age forty, thirty years ago. I think I know deep down (like in my joints), that is probably just some wining boomer propaganda.

Try as I may I can't quite get the mirror or my body in agreement with that information. Regardless, I do have, shall we say, adequate history from which to base my evalution.

As, I self-examined the validity, the priority and the importance of the "three things a man needs" over the span of my life, I can attest to the inclusiveness of those three foundational requirements. It probably deserves much greater consideration, but I think even the order of, "serving God", "work to do", "a woman to love" is the right order of life for me.

Boy! Looking back I recognize the order, priority and importance sure got shifted around.

Now, at age sixty-one I realize that those three man need factors, are desperately just as vital to my life, as when I was twenty-one.

I praise the Lord, that through my faith walk, I have learned to better integrate and balance those needs.

Herrick, I believe you added some more great fatherly wisdom to young James's treasure chest.

God Bless,
Barry

Herrick Kimball said...

Thanks Barry.

I sure do hope James sees, and remembers, and applies the wisdom I try to impart to him and his brothers. Sometimes I fear that it is not making any difference, that they don't get it. I guess that is where God's grace and mercy really comes into play. And I'm trusting that He will give them the wisdom as only He can.

Thanks for commenting here.