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Thanksgiving

“Give thanks in all circumstances; for this is the will of God in Christ Jesus for you.”
1 Thessalonians 5:18

“I will give to the Lord the thanks due to his righteousness, and I will sing praise to the name of the Lord, the Most High.”
Psalm 7:17

Thankfulness is rooted in humility, because it takes a humble person to realize that he is not solely responsible for all the good he has acquired in his life. A Higher Power aided him, and to this Power man must give thanks.

The root of thanksgiving is awareness. It can be difficult to be thankful if you don’t realize how much you have. If you exist in the modern world, you are blessed.

It can also be difficult to be thankful because it just seems cheesy. This is due to the way thanksgiving has been twisted towards emotionalistic liberalism. Thanksgiving is not an emotion. Emotions are for children. Radical Liberalism is for the beta. Radical Conservatism is for the beta. Thankfulness based in humility is for Men.

Thanksgiving is conscious awareness for what one has, and gratitude that one has it.

Mantra

I am aware of my good fortune, and I appreciate it.

Application

Take an inventory of the things that matter to you. Take inventory of your favorite things in life and think about them. When you think about these things, appreciation and thankfulness for them eventually emerges. These things do not have to be physical. Look at everything you have been given, and at how little others have been given, and it is difficult not to be thankful.

Take inventory of things in your life that you cannot control and that have aided you. If you were born into a great family or in a great country, that is a blessing. If your parents know great people and have good connections, that is a blessing.

Take inventory of all the situations that have gone your way in life. As humans we tend to focus on the negative things that happen to us. We forget all the times that things have gone our way. The only way to change this habit is to start being aware of when anything goes our way.

Be grateful for every single tiny thing that goes your way in life. Let nothing slip by unnoticed. Immediately give thanks to God when you do notice your blessings. Be wise.

Conduct yourselves like Men.

Hatred

Hate is the opposite of the action of love, therefore, hatred must be an action.

“Whoever says he is in the light and hates his brother is still in darkness”.
1 John 2:9

“Whoever hates disguises himself with his lips and harbors deceit in his heart; when he speaks graciously, believe him not, for there are seven abominations in his heart; though his hatred be covered with deception, his wickedness will be exposed in the assembly.”
Proverbs 26:24-26

We hate most people in the world. Why? Because we sit and do nothing for their souls. The Church has done a great job telling us that love has little or nothing to do with emotional feelings, yet they have done an abysmal job preaching the same ideology about hatred.

Hate is the opposite of the action of love, therefore, hatred must be an action.

And it does not have to be a “hate crime”, or an active attempt at bringing evil on someone else, in fact, the most deadly hatred is passive.

We walk by hundreds of people every week who have no idea about the gospel. If they continue to live their lives the way they are now, they will end up in hell, no doubt about it. We know this already, yet what do we do? Nothing. We have the knowledge and power that would pull them from the depths of hell yet we sit on it, we don’t share it, we keep it to ourselves. This action is hatred. It is hatred and sin disguising itself as something innocent. If we do not share the gospel, we hate other people.

Does this mean we should stand in the middle of Walmart to evangelize? I don’t think so. While that wouldn’t be wrong, it almost certainly would be ineffective and therefore a waste of time just like door-knocking in the 21st century. That evangelism should be strategic and relationship based, rather than “business based” as it has been for so long.

People still think these old evangelism strategies are valuable!

Just know, these are the same people who kept their money in a bank that gave them 0.25% interest instead of investing to get 5-8% interest. How are their retirement accounts looking these days?

Hatred is a silent killer. All it needs is for you to be content and comfortable doing nothing with your faith, and doing nothing for the people around you. This is the general law of hatred. It’s not some big Hitlerian show of evil. It’s subtle, and it will result in the death of souls if we do not do something about it. Boys think hatred is an emotion. Men recognize hate as an action.

Once hate is recognized as an action, preventative measures can be set up against it.

Mantra

Hatred is an action, not an emotion.

Application

Awareness is always the first principle of improvement. You must become aware of your hatred for others before you can end it. Be aware of how you think about other people who pass you by. Think about their souls. Think about what would happen if you were them and they were you. Your soul would be lost at the end of life if someone didn’t have the love to tell you the truth.

After becoming aware, do something to stop it. Build relationships with people, and on those relationships share the gospel. This is how you defeat hatred.

It will be very difficult to share the gospel without a previous relationship with someone.

People aren’t going to invest in stocks they hear about for the first time without doing research. Why then would they invest in your faith if they know nothing about you? This is one of the reasons door-knocking has become less effective. Because in the 21st century human beings have never been so connected yet so lonely. That loneliness has to be counteracted with real relationships with people.

When you build relationships with people you are showing that you care about them as individuals, something that is not conveyed by banging on someone’s door and giving them a pamphlet. On the strong foundation of a friendship, share the gospel. You will find this yields a much higher rate of return than the classic methods still used in religion today.

Conduct Yourselves like Men.

Prayer

It is a disgrace to only go to God when we have exhausted all other options. “All I can do now is pray”, they say. Well you should have been praying all along! Prayer should be the first option, not the last resort.

“Therefore I tell you, whatever you ask in prayer, believe that you have received it, and it will be yours.”
Mark 11:24

“Walk prudently when you go to the house of God; and draw near to hear rather than to give the sacrifice of fools, for they do not know that they do evil. Do not be rash with your mouth, And let not your heart utter anything hastily before God. For God is in heaven, and you on earth; Therefore let your words be few. For God is in heaven, and you on earth; Therefore let your words be few.”
Ecclesiastes 5:1-2

We are permitted to speak to the Creator of the universe. We can open our mouths and utter words to God Himself. This is a tremendous privilege. What do we do with it?

The plague of beta-males in the Church have diluted prayer.

You walk into Church and what do you hear in prayer?

“Oh Lord God Jesus we just thank you just thank and thank just you are so wonderful just guide us and fill us just help us and just challenge us” et cetera, et cetera.

Bosh and twaddle. Senselessness. This type of prayer is a disgrace. Prayer is not a chick flick for your emotions. If you are going to get emotional in prayer, do so at home. Only at that point can you suggest that those emotions are legitimate and not meant for show.

Don’t be the emotional beta.

Do not conflate your emotions with spirituality, the two are not the same.

Are you praying each day? Probably not. You probably come crawling up to God only when you have fallen into abject darkness. You speak to Him when you are in need, and forget Him when you need nothing. This is the most shameful form of prayer.

It is a disgrace to only go to God when we have exhausted all other options. “All I can do now is pray”, they say. Well you should have been praying all along! Prayer should be the first option, not the last resort. We should be ashamed of ourselves if we do this. Prayer is a tool that we should take advantage of always.

Speak to the Lord daily as Daniel did. Praying three times per day and continuing to do so even when praying would cause his life to be in danger.

Mantra

Pray instead of a Mantra.

Application

Prayer should be a keystone habit for Christian people. Daniel prayed three times per day, same time, same place, out of discipline. Were there times he probably did not feel like praying? Sure. It is human nature to not always want to do things, but Daniel prayed nonetheless. And so dedicated was he that those who plotted to bring him down knew exactly how they could trap him. They knew he was fully committed and faithful in prayer. Daniel’s enemies knew that the only way to trap him was to use his God.

Jesus gave the model prayer to us to use it, not just so we could look at it. Use the model prayer if you cannot make your own. Use that prayer until you have developed the habit of praying every day. One small prayer every day, that is where you start. That is how you become a Man.

Conduct Yourselves like Men.

Failure

Failure is a surefire way to generate growth both of character and skill.

“My flesh and my heart may fail, but God is the strength of my heart and my portion forever.”
Psalm 73:26

At some point you come face to face with failure. Whether it manifests as a character flaw that affects your work or a sin does not matter. As a man, failing is difficult because of the massive egos we usually carry around. But failing is inevitable.

We should not be discouraged by failing, instead it should excite us. Because within that failure are the exact coordinates for where we need to go in order to improve. Failure is a performance evaluation for our character that lets us know precisely where we are insufficient. Failure points its bony fingers in the direction of improvement. Our failures show us that our study strategies or work ethic need improvement. Sexual failings tells us that our self-control needs refinement.

The weak men are discouraged. Boys wallow in their weakness and flaws like liberals. Weak men ignore their flaws and pretend they don’t exist like conservatives. Both cases are the result of a lack of masculinity.

Masculinity takes ownership of that failure. It claims every ounce of failure as its own. Masculinity takes full responsibility for the insufficiency it possesses. Ignore the weak, frail ego that pervades the Church and take ownership of your life. Have some ownership for your failures, and use them as a tool to improve.

No growth is possible without failure.

When I fail, I only grow.

Application

Don’t be discouraged by failing, instead use it. The best thing about failing is it gives you the blueprint for improvement. Failure is part of the recipe for success. All you have to do is avoid the ego trauma of the weak beta male, and turn that weakness and failure into strength and success.

To properly use failure, you first have to set clear parameters for both success and failure. You must clearly define the standards of success. Only by doing this will you know when you have failed.

Without standards, we have no way to evaluate our performance. When we cannot evaluate our performance, we cannot know when we have failed. If we cannot know when we fail, we will not know when we need to improve. When we don’t know if we need to improve, we will remain stagnant.

Accept the reality that you are insufficient in many areas.

This can be done by writing down who you want to be and comparing it to who you are now. Doing this shows us that we have much work to do. But it also shows us a path to success. A man must first decide who he wants to be before he can begin working on becoming that ideal. “Those in athletic pursuit first chose the sport they want, and then do the work” ~ Epictetus. (Read it for Free here)

Be willing to fail. Do not let fear of failing prevent you from taking action. Failure is a surefire path to growth and learning. And it comes at a fraction of the cost of a modern college education. Endure the pain of change.

The next time you fail, try to rush to being thankful for it. You just learned a lesson you will never forget. That alone makes failure a better teacher than any egg-head in a classroom.

Conduct Yourselves Like Men.

Dedication

Dedication is the only path to lasting growth. And dedication is the only way to continue to improve.

“Dedication is the only way to lasting growth.”

“Blessed is the man, Who walks not in the counsel of the ungodly, Nor stands in the path of sinners, Nor sits in the seat of the scornful; But his delight is in the law of the Lord, And in His law he meditates day and night”
Psalm 1:1-2

Have you quit reading yet? You’ve likely allowed yourself to slip in your discipline. A whole month in and the habit starts to grind on you. It is no longer a fun self-improvement tool, now it’s a chore. It is no longer a way to grow and get better continually, it is something that is annoying. You are tired of growing and progressing. Or maybe you aren’t.

Dedication is the only path to lasting growth. Being dedicated when heaven doesn’t even seem worth it. And dedication is the only way to continue to improve. Even the peace and glory of heaven is not enough to keep us motivated. Because of this, you must conjure the power from within yourself to remain dedicated when you would want nothing more than to quit. With all the pleasures in life, why would you deprive yourself of them for some goal you don’t even want?

The dedicated soul must embrace the fact that his motivation will die many times over. His dedication will be the only thing that keeps him alive and pushing.

Men are dedicated. Boys are carried about by emotion. Men act regardless of how they feel. Boys depend on their motivation.

Mantra

Dedicate every day to progress.

Application

Override the voice in your head that tells you that you aren’t feeling like doing what is right today. Shut it down. Immediately turn your thoughts to something else, it does not matter what.

I don’t feel like writing this passage today, yet here I am. How you feel is irrelevant, your action is all that matters.

Get up. Get moving. Crush goals and improve. Because if you can improve and grow on days when you don’t feel like it, imagine the limitless power of growth you will have when you do feel like working. Be Dedicated. Reject Emotionalism. Take Action.

Conduct Yourselves Like Men.

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