{"id":1059,"date":"2009-11-29T15:49:02","date_gmt":"2009-11-29T21:49:02","guid":{"rendered":"130881736"},"modified":"2009-11-29T15:49:52","modified_gmt":"2009-11-29T21:49:52","slug":"today-the-gathering-why-most-married-men-are-miserable","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.davidfoster.tv\/today-the-gathering-why-most-married-men-are-miserable\/","title":{"rendered":"Today @ The Gathering: Why Most Married Men are Miserable"},"content":{"rendered":"

<\/strong><\/p>\n

\"\"Today @ The Gathering <\/a>we continued our current series, \u201cThey Promised Me Chocolate\u201d<\/strong> with installment number 6, by dealing head-on with marriage and why so many men seem to be stuck in miserable or mildly tolerable marriages.<\/em><\/p>\n

We dealt with the three downgrades we\u2019re confronted with subtly,\u00a0 every day in the images and commercials we consume in America.\u00a0 These downgrades are:<\/p>\n

    \n
  1. The downgrade that we see in gender differences. <\/strong> We\u2019re constantly told, in commercials, by leaders, and by those with influence, that there is really no big difference between men and women. So we try to make men feminine and women masculine, instead of celebrating the best of what it means to be masculine and feminine.<\/li>\n
  2. The downgrade that says marriage is an option.<\/strong> I believe without exception that marriage is essential for the well-being, not only of men and women but society, itself.\u00a0 It\u2019s how God put us together.\u00a0 The Scriptures begin with a marriage and end with a marriage.\u00a0 And everything in between, if it\u2019s not directed at marriage and family, certainly it is directly about relationships that need reconciling and redeeming.<\/li>\n
  3. The attempt to downgrade sexual exclusivity.<\/strong> In America marriage is recognized by our government as a civil contract.\u00a0 And that contract has three basic parts: financial unity, next of kin, and sexual exclusivity.\u00a0 Even in a culture where adultery and trading partners seem to be the norm, sexual exclusivity is still honored and respected particularly among the influential, and leaders.<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n

    Here are the 5 reasons, it seems to me, married men in America are miserable.<\/p>\n

      \n
    1. They are afraid to be who they are.<\/strong> Raised in a culture that seem bent on portraying men as knuckle-dragging, beer-guzzling buffoons, it\u2019s hard to understand what a real man should be.\u00a0 Real men shoot things, drive fast and trade women as though they were a commodity.\u00a0 But this is not real manhood.\u00a0 It\u2019s not fulfilling, and it\u2019s certainly not God\u2019s intention.\u00a0 God created men to be men and as such be image-bearers of God, and for women to be women and as such image-bearers of God.<\/li>\n
    2. They don\u2019t know what they want. <\/strong> Raised in families where fathers are either absent or disengaged, they\u2019ve never seen what a real man is like and how he is fulfilled in his marriage and family relationships.\u00a0 So men are looking for something and they are not sure what it is.\u00a0 They think it\u2019s in an image of a beautiful woman, a nice house, and smiling children.\u00a0 But really what it is, is respect and appreciation.\u00a0 And wherever a man is given honor and respect, he\u2019ll be happy and engaged.<\/li>\n
    3. They don\u2019t know what women want.<\/strong> If I\u2019ve learned anything in life as a married man and a father of three girls, I know that women want to be chosen and cherished.\u00a0 They want to be wowed, won, and wooed.\u00a0 And when they are, they respond in kind.<\/li>\n
    4. Men are ashamed about their sex-drive.<\/strong> The more ashamed they feel, the more they will submerge that need into dark practices such as pornography.<\/li>\n
    5. Men are bored to death of being nice. <\/strong> They want to be dangerous; good, smart, and strong, but dangerous.\u00a0 Assertive, aggressive, they are warriors; each man has a warrior\u2019s heart looking for a battle worth fighting, for a love worth winning and for work worth doing.<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

      Today @ The Gathering we continued our current series, \u201cThey Promised Me Chocolate\u201d with installment number 6, by dealing head-on with marriage and why so many men seem to be stuck in miserable or mildly tolerable marriages. We dealt with the three downgrades we\u2019re confronted with subtly,\u00a0 every day in the images and commercials we … Continue reading “Today @ The Gathering: Why Most Married Men are Miserable”<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[11],"tags":[],"series":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.davidfoster.tv\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1059"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.davidfoster.tv\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.davidfoster.tv\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.davidfoster.tv\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.davidfoster.tv\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1059"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.davidfoster.tv\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1059\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.davidfoster.tv\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1059"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.davidfoster.tv\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1059"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.davidfoster.tv\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1059"},{"taxonomy":"series","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.davidfoster.tv\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/series?post=1059"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}