“Come on. Be a man!”

When I was a kid, we knew what people meant by the phrase, Be a man.

Be strong. Be tough. Don’t cry. Try your best. Be responsible. Get a job. Provide. Protect. Don’t hit girls.

The basics.

Beyond the basics were other ideas. Play sports. Work on cars. Fix stuff around the house. Be smooth with the ladies. Stand up for what was right. Hold your liquor. Have a cool car.

Good or bad, we knew what it meant to be a man in our American culture. Were some of those expectations healthy? Yes. Were some toxic? Also, yes.

The concepts and expectations I refer to are decades old. Beginning in the 90s, our Western society began to shift away from those expectations. Most of the shift happened because of the toxic and ridiculous associations our society had with the identity of manhood.

However, as historically happens, the pushback went too far, and instead of giving boys a healthy and constructive idea of manhood, we have either erased any idea of manhood or dismissed any expression of masculinity as dangerous and violent.

God made humanity in his own image and clearly makes a distinction. He made them male and female ( as well as Say Yes: How God-Sized Dreams Take Flight.