Fatherhood - What is it to be a Man?

I went to the Priesthood session of general conference tonight, with my father. It was a very powerful evening, and especially since I got to share it with family. Some people criticize us for having meetings that separate the men from the women, but there's great strength and unity in meeting with and sharing a spiritual time with hundreds of other guys, all of whom are striving to make a better life for their families.

One of the speakers tonight talked about the nature of the priesthood and about how the covenant of the priesthood was basically one of service. It got me to thinking about what it means to be be a man in today's world.

You look at popular culture, and there are lots of conflicting and confusing opinions of what "being a man" and being a "good man" really are. There's the tough guy, the loner, the ladies' man, the intellectual, the powerful man-in-charge. None of those seem to "get it" for me. Yet I see examples all around of people trying desperately to fit into one or more of those molds.

I'm finally beginning to see that, really, the key element of being a good man, truly the essence of Christian masculinity, is pretty simple, really: It's all about taking care of other people's needs above your own.

If that means you go to work daily to a job that's miserable because it keeps your family fed, you do it. if it means driving your kid for a late-night, three-hour wait in an ER because he needs a lung X-ray, you do it. If it means that you do something special for your kids instead of sleeping in on a Saturday, you do it. If it means interrupting your own time to go next door and give a sick neighbor a blessing, or to help someone move, you do it. You take care of the kids for a night, so your wife gets a much-needed break.

And somewhere in it all, you still manage to find a little time to blog, to cook in your dutch ovens , play a little MTG , or write a song or two .

That's all that stepping up and taking responsibility is, really.


MRKH
Mark Hansen
http://markhansenmusic.com

Parenthood - Common Uniqueness

My good friend Marc had his little girl, his first child, blessed today. I was lucky to be there. As he, and I, and others stood to bear our testimonies afterward, it occurred to me just what an interesting ride parenthood is.

I mean, it's like the ultimate in shared human experiences. Almost everyone at some point in their lives will experience it. Many who don't experience it biologically will still be able to do it socially. It truly is one thing that almost everyone does.

But for all of it's common ground, shared experiences, and universality, it's still unique with every child and every parent. I interact differently with Brendon than I do with Jake. I know that I interact differently with their friends who come over to play, because they are someone else's child. Even though I do make them follow the rules of our house while they're here, and I'm the responsible adult while I'm here, I'm still not their dad.

If fate had touched someone else with the task of being the parent to Brendon or Jacob, their shared experience would be vastly different (possibly even better) than what we've shared.

I don't really know where I'm going with this, other than that I find it interesting that God has set up our lives in such a way that we can be so unique. We all do it, but we all do it our own way.



MRKH
Mark Hansen
http://markhansenmusic.com

Praying & Singing & Drumming

It was kinda cool to post up that song the other day, but even cooler to get this response:

Subject: I just read your blog...

and I thought the lyrics were amazing. So, I listened to the music and thought it could use a bit more fill-in-type drums - just for fun.

Here's what I came up with.

http://www.ilovemyjournal.com/SingThisPrayerFull.mp3

Feel free to do whatever you want with it - or nothing at all. I just needed to play to this awesome song, and now I feel *MUCH* better.

Thanks again for sharing.

--Jason

I decided to leave the full link on there. I really like reading his "I Love My Journal" blog. He's got some real insights into the scriptures. Just don't look at his pictures if individuality scares you!

MRKH
Mark Hansen
http://markhansenmusic.com