Manhood Plan – June 1, 2002

Manhood Plan – Bill Sanders, age 59 – June 1, 2002

A Look Back – Not having known my father affected me more than I realized, with submerged feelings of rejection, loneliness and anger. That gap was partly filled (through my mother’s wisdom) by the good and godly men who influenced me growing up: her father (I was raised in his home); her brother and his family; their church; YMCA; Boy Scouts; military school, etc. And I began to know the heavenly Father’s love through the grace of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ when I was saved at age 23 in the Navy. Being discipled by a fellow aviator who led me to Christ (we are still friends) and mentored by several pastors developed in me a love for God’s word and his church that have been great sources of strength in the succeeding years.

The Lord provided for me a good, sensitive, loving, Christian wife. We made a decision from the start for her to be a homemaker in the career of raising our children to know our Lord. He blessed that commitment by giving me a long-time job that has met all our needs, and we established a home where Christ was Lord with the church as our extended family. While our five children were growing up I served, when opportunities arose, as a leader in the Christian Service Brigade and as a founder and president of the Christian school they attended.

A Look at Now – Blessed in our church with its full schedule of essential ministries and with godly leaders and friends, my passion is to know Christ and have his character formed in me. I am still learning to reject passivity, accept responsibility, and lead courageously. Since I was saved and became a disciple of Jesus Christ, I have expected God’s greater rewards, and I am now enjoying them with my wife. Our five grown children (the youngest still lives with us, attending college) all know the Lord and follow him; they love us and each other; they have embraced our values and are involved in good churches, committed to the transcendent cause of loving Christ and serving him in their varied schools and vocations. They are in many ways more mature and wiser than we were at their age, and we have the joy of sharing our faith, experience, wisdom and love with our adult children and three (so far) grandchildren.

I find the men’s Bible studies (currently The Quest for Authentic Manhood) particularly beneficial and have given resource materials from these studies to our three sons, who have told me of the help these have been in their lives. I am committed to study through God’s word every year (as I have for the last two), I have chosen a verse for my life: Proverbs 4:18  “But the path of the just is as the shining light, that shineth more and more unto the perfect day.” More recently God has been entrusting to me the confidence of my adult children and of other men, whom I am able to help through my practical gifts of mechanical and problem-solving abilities, knowledge of God’s word, and life experience. I receive special benefit in an accountability class, “sharpening iron” with a few men committed to God’s holiness and glory.

A Look Ahead – I want to finish well, experiencing the full blessings of the first Psalm. I want to be a servant-leader-lover to my wife and a standard-bearer for our family. I want to continue growing in the knowledge of Christ and his word. I would like to live below our means in order to live without worrying about finances, but rather spend that energy serving my family, church and others.

I will consider myself fulfilled as a man if, by the end of my life, I have a wife who feels loved, protected and led by me. I want to have been her refuge. I want to have raised godly children who look at life as a blessing from God and see their mission as serving God as well as their families, and who measure their success not only by finances, but also through all the other ways God rewards us.

I realize that with an unknown (to me) but shortening time remaining until I am with the Lord, my life is a series of day-to-days, and I must redeem every one and make it count for His glory. I am making the prayer of Moses, the man of God, my prayer too: Psalm 90:12  “So teach us to number our days, that we may apply our hearts unto wisdom”.