In today’s world, genuine strength is a matter of integrity, not physicality. – A.R. Bernard
Physical Strength
This is the last in my series of “What Women Want From Men.” We’ve covered Maturity, Character, and Decisiveness.
It’s nice to be physically strong. There is nothing wrong with being in shape and taking care of our bodies. Is that all that matters? Are you a man that relies on being physically strong or at least being stronger than your spouse? I don’t want to be the bearer of bad news, but that’s not enough anymore. Strength for a man has changed and has a deeper meaning now.
Walking Your Own Path
When I say that strength has a deeper meaning this is what I mean. I remember times when I’ve had to stand alone. When my wife and I started wanting to have children, we wanted to have home births. At the time we didn’t know anybody else in or around us that had done a home birth. Being African American too, it seemed like we were all alone in trying to go this route.
We kept the circle of who we told our plan to very limited. The initial response was a lot of what you would expect. “Why?” “What’s wrong with the hospital?” “Who does that?” We had to hold on to our conviction and make the stance for a while by ourselves. I had to be strong for my wife because she would get a lot of these questions. Eventually, people came around but for a while, we had to stand by ourselves.
True Strength
That’s what strength really is. Strength is the ability to be able to stand on your convictions no matter what others are doing. Once you’re able to stand on your own convictions, you find that most people follow the crowd and don’t know why.
We can take that same approach to how a man is supposed to behave, act, and think in a marriage. Men can think that anger equals strength or that having emotional outbursts, and trying to assert themselves physically is proving their manliness. So what then is true strength?
Following the example of Jesus, we can see what true strength looks like.
- Strength is demonstrated by gentleness and kindness
- It is the ability to walk in self-control
- Strength is being a man of integrity
Looking at each of the three items listed above you begin to see that true strength is more about your character as a man and not your physical body. It’s not about intimidating others, acting without control, or being selfish. Those are the signs of an immature man. Real strength is being able to lead, guide, and serve those around us.
Discussion Question:
What does strength mean to you?
