Reading on Manhood

So on father's day, I read ...

"James Dobson (of "Focus on the Family") has seen the tremendous importance of this truth very clearly and the terrible effects when a husband and father abdicates his responsibility. Here is what he said,

A Christian man is obligated to lead his family to the best of his ability . . . If his family has purchased too many items on credit, then the financial crunch is ultimately his fault. If the family never reads the Bible or seldom goes to church on Sunday, God holds the man to blame. If the children are disrespectful and disobedient, the primary responsibility lies with the father . . . not his wife . . . In my view [says Dobson], America's greatest need is for husbands to begin guiding their families, rather than pouring every physical and emotional resource into the mere acquisition of money. (Straight Talk to Men and Their Wives, Word Books, 1980, pp. 64f.)"

and

"It's a call to us men ...
that we should take the risk of getting egg on our faces;
that we should pray like we've never prayed for help in this tremendous responsibility;
that we should be in the Word more than we ever have been to know what God expects of us;
that we should plan things more than we do, and be intentional and thoughtful and less carried along by the mood of the moment;
that we should be disciplined and ordered in our lives;
that we should be tender-hearted and sensitive;
that we should take the initiative to make sure that there is a time and a place to talk to her about what needs to be talked about—this "her" could be a friend, a date, a colleague, a wife, a sister;
that we should be ready to lay down our lives in discharging this responsibility to be the leaders God is calling us to be."

from - http://www.desiringgod.org/sermons/manhood-and-womanhood-before-sin

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God sure sets high standards for being a Christian man. But in all these, something comforting will be that there's always room for improvement and that God will be with us until he is done working with/in us.