Wild at Heart

My wife and I decided about a month back that we should stop watching so much TV and social media, and read some more. Whether they were magazines or books, just something that would get us feeling a little bit more intellectual about ourselves. I've never been much of a reader up until now. One of the only books that I can remember reading up until about a month ago was one of the Harry Potter books that I was forced to read in elementary school. I guess I was one of those kids that stuck to the kid saying of " Reading isn't cool". Anyway, the past few months I've read the Hunger Games trilogy, as well as a book written by Tony Dungy. The latest book that I read was called Wild at Heart by John Eldredge. My wife suggested this book to me and when I read the intro, I was iffy on whether I would be interested in the book. It seemed really sappy and seemed to be a book about getting in touch with your feelings. I read it anyway, and was surprised at all the things in the book that I learned about not only myself, but about how to be a better husband. The book describes how we as men don't feel of any worth without having some type of adventure. We must have something to go after, and there must be some sort of uncertainty on whether we will fail or succeed to test our "manhood". Eldredge says, " A man is never more of a man than when he embraces in adventure beyond his control, or when he walks into a battle he isn't sure of winning". I never realized how true this really was, but for me, I like the challenge of being able to go after something. When I accomplish that challenge, I feel like I'm on cloud 9 and that's one of the greatest feelings as a man. It also taught me a lot about women, particularly my wife. Woman have to feel as though they are desired, wanted, and cherished. They want a man to fight for them. Look at all the stories we hear as children. The classic example that I can think of is one of my favorite movies growing up, Aladdin. Aladdin had to fight for Princess Jasmine. She wanted to be desired and loved. As men sometimes we don't always express our love for our wives or girlfriends. We don't make them feel desired or cherished, and when that happens, they tend to find that feeling of desire from someone else. A true man desires his wife, cherishes his woman, and tells his woman everyday about how much he loves her. I recommend this book to any man no matter what age or where you are in your life. It will help you learn more about trusting in your faith, what it takes to be a man, and how to love your spouse. I'll leave with a quote that described my life perfectly. Oswald Chambers says, " We look upon uncertainty as a bad thing….Certainty is the mark of the common sense life; gracious uncertainty is the mark of the spiritual life. To be certain of God means that we are uncertain in all our ways, we do not know what a day may bring forth".