On The Road To Manhood

This book, On the Road to Manhood, is an effective tool that will not only answer essential questions many men have, but will provide a clear map for entering that path and successfully traveling it. To achieve that goal this book will assist the careful reader to begin finding the way towards understanding himself. There are few lessons in my life that have had more resonance within the deeper places of my soul, than the profound, priceless message locked in the words of that "weeping prophet," Jeramiah, who made that often quoted and pride-less confession, revealing a degree of vulnerability rarely matched in this age, "Oh Lord, I know that the way of man is not in himself, it is not in man that walks to direct his own steps" (Jerimiah 10:23). It saddens me that I spent so many years living recklessly, outside of a properly developed faith. When I consider how far away from the Lord I was, I am blessed that God did not allow death to usher me into the grave, while I wandered aimlessly in sin. It was not until after I had slid down that slippery slope from prominence, as it were, to despicableness, I discovered how very little I knew about truth, reality, good or God. One day it occurred to me, as I pondered Jeramiah's struggle that I, myself, was ill-prepared for the life of godly peace and power, because I was living under the illusion that I knew that vital something about manhood, with which I was only vaguely familiar. Have you ever been in that place in your own mind? That frame of mind where you think you know more than you really do; but you don't know that you don't know? Where because of your proximity to a truth, you think you know the truth? I am referring to that awful place of deception, where the enemy of our faith has tricked you into a sense of false peace and ease. A place where you even think that everything is just fine, everything is alright, while in reality you may be living in the far country, outside of Christ, disconnected from the God of heaven, and really only a step away from destruction. You ever been there? Well thank God if you have not, but if any of you, like me, have been anywhere near that dark place, then you know what false peace feels like. And then, maybe you also know how it feels when your eyes begin to open to the reality of your predicament, I most certainly do. When you begin to experience the feelings associated with being lost, hopeless, empty. You know the pain, the hurt that floods a lonely soul, when you realize what you have done to yourself, when you see what has become of you. I can tell you from my own experience, that there is not a moment quite like that moment when all pride is thrown aside, when the blinders fall off, and just for a moment you can see a truth that had previously alluded you. God had been bringing you to this moment (he sure did me), but pride and sin kept getting in the way, keeping me from seeing it. And then it hits you all at once, as if a loud speaker goes off in your mind, when you finally get it clear in your mind that life is meant to be more than the life I am living. What a hard pill this can be to swallow, especially for the individual who has become accustomed to not seeing or facing himself. As well for the one who does not yet know or understand the powerful truth in the simple phrase, I am nothing, absolutely nothing without God.

WHAT IT MEANS TO BE A MAN Raising up men has never been easy, but today is seems particularly tough. The young and old need heroes to embody the eternal qualities of manhood: honor, duty, valor, and integrity. InThe Book of Man, William J. Bennett points the way, offering a positive, encouraging, uplifting, realizable idea of manhood, redolent of history and human nature, and practical for contemporary life. Using profiles, stories, letters, poems, essays, historical vignettes, and myths to bring his subject to life, The Book of Man defines what a man should be, how he should live, and to what he should aspire in several key areas of life: war, work, leisure, and more. "Whether we take up the sword, the plow, the ball, the gavel, our children, or our Bibles," says Bennett, "we must always do it like the men we are called to be."The Book of Man shows how.

There's a lot a guy needs to know as he grows up and makes his way in the world. And a lot of it, he wouldn't necessarily want to have to ask about because then, well, people would know he didn't know what he was doing! For all the guys out there who want to have it all together, Jonathan Catherman offers this collection of one hundred step-by-step instructions on almost everything a guy needs to know, including how to · wear cologne correctly · manage a credit card · talk to a girl · plan a date · write a résumé · ask for a reference · clean a bathroom · throw a football · change a tire · behave during a traffic stop · fold a shirt · tie a tie · grill a steak · clear a sink drain · find a stud in a wall In fact, if it's in here, it's an important skill or character trait practiced by capable and confident men. With great illustrations and a supporting website, this all-in-one reference tool for young men in the making is the perfect gift for birthdays, graduations, or any occasion.

Over and over, Scripture indicates that "Blessed is the man who finds wisdom...." A wealth of knowledge and understanding can come from the teachings of others. And now, Stu Weber has compiled in one compact volume some of the best writings related to manhood. Readers can tap into the powerful, life-impacting wisdom gleaned from generations of husbands, fathers, sons and brothers-plus a few good women-as they travel Along the Road to Manhood with Stu Weber, best-selling author of Tender Warrior and Locking Arms. From the Trade Paperback edition.

DAILY MAIL BOOK OF THE WEEK Men must be the worst oppressors in history - we pay the most taxes, get the least support and play longer matches at Wimbledon for no extra money. We're also more likely to be homeless, circumcised, attacked, jailed, drafted, under-educated, short-changed in parenthood and shafted by divorce. Oh, and to top it all, we die sooner. Despite this, feminists still assert we live in a patriarchy and give us a hard time. Fortunately, Peter Lloyd is here to offer a reality check in this long-overdue lad bible. Part polemic, part toolkit for the modern man, Stand By Your Manhood answers all the burning questions facing the brotherhood today, including: Should we fund the first date? Is penis size a political issue? Are we sexist if we enjoy pornography? Why isn't there a men's minister? Politically incorrect, fearless and laugh-out-loud funny, this is the deliciously provocative book that gives blokes their balls back.

An exceptional father-son story from the National Book Award–winning author of Between the World and Me about the reality that tests us, the myths that sustain us, and the love that saves us. Paul Coates was an enigmatic god to his sons: a Vietnam vet who rolled with the Black Panthers, an old-school disciplinarian and new-age believer in free love, an autodidact who launched a publishing company in his basement dedicated to telling the true history of African civilization. Most of all, he was a wily tactician whose mission was to carry his sons across the shoals of inner-city adolescence—and through the collapsing civilization of Baltimore in the Age of Crack—and into the safe arms of Howard University, where he worked so his children could attend for free. Among his brood of seven, his main challenges were Ta-Nehisi, spacey and sensitive and almost comically miscalibrated for his environment, and Big Bill, charismatic and all-too-ready for the challenges of the streets. The Beautiful Struggle follows their divergent paths through this turbulent period, and their father’s steadfast efforts—assisted by mothers, teachers, and a body of myths, histories, and rituals conjured from the past to meet the needs of a troubled present—to keep them whole in a world that seemed bent on their destruction. With a remarkable ability to reimagine both the lost world of his father’s generation and the terrors and wonders of his own youth, Coates offers readers a small and beautiful epic about boys trying to become men in black America and beyond. Praise for The Beautiful Struggle “I grew up in a Maryland that lay years, miles and worlds away from the one whose summers and sorrows Ta-Nehisi Coates evokes in this memoir with such tenderness and science; and the greatest proof of the power of this work is the way that, reading it, I felt that time, distance and barriers of race and class meant nothing. That in telling his story he was telling my own story, for me.”—Michael Chabon, bestselling author of The Yiddish Policemen’s Union and The Amazing Adventures of Kavalier & Clay “Ta-Nehisi Coates is the young James Joyce of the hip hop generation.”—Walter Mosley