Duty Calls

Never Let Your Body Tell Your Mind What to Do

"Now if you are going to win any battle you have to do one thing. You have to make the mind run the body. Never let the body tell the mind what to do. The body will always give up. It is always tired morning, noon, and night. But the body is never tired if the mind is not tired. When you were younger the mind could make you dance all night, and the body was never tired...You've always got to make the mind take over and keep going."

George S. Patton, U.S. Army General and 1912 Olympian

Source: Runner's World

Listen Up, Men! A Call to Duty from Jianna Jessen

Listen up, men. Gianna Jessen -- survivor of a botched late-term infanticide (a.k.a., abortion) -- tells her triumphant story in the following two segments. Despite the evil conspiracy between Ms. Jessen's own mother and a physician who specialized in murdering the unborn, Gianna is alive today to tell her story and glorify the God of creation.

Watch both segments entirely and stand up as men to treat women with the respect they deserve and to protect the most vulnerable among us.

 

 

What Are You Doing...

...to protect the unborn?

 “The great irony is that abortion has done what the Klan only dreamed of.... Roughly one quarter of the black population is now missing."

(Dr. Alveda King -- The niece of Martin Luther King, Jr., has long been a strong opponent of killing the unborn.)

(As seen at The New American)

God's Small Interpreters

Good morning, dads!  Here's a great thought for today and beyond --

"We need love's tender lesson taught

As only weakness can;

God hath His small interpreters,

The child must teach the man."

(John Greenleaf Whittier)

First Things First

"We always have time for the things we put first." 

I don't know who first said or wrote this, but it is very close to perfect.  I would modify it somewhat by exchanging just one word.  My version would read "We always have time for the people we put first."

The lesson is simple for those who answer the call of duty to love those around them.  Think about who you put first in your life.  Who gets the first fruits of your time?  Your wife?  Your kids?  Your boss?  Your self?  This is an important consideration because you can only demonstrate love by investing time and effort.  The concept of quality versus quantity doesn't really hold water.  In my experience, the people I've heard make that argument are using it as a cover story to justify the little time they devote to their families.  It's not a question of quality versus quantity, but rather the combined benefit of both. 

So, let's get real here.  We really do always have time for the people we put first.  Measure your use of time and use that as an honest assessment of who you put first.  If you need to make adjustments, then do it.  Not only will you make those whom you care for happy, but you'll also be a happier guy.

Duty calls on us to spend more time with those for whom we care.

Love at First Sight...

Here’s something to think about, taken from a daily quote calendar my kids gave me many years ago:
 
“Love at first sight is easy to understand. It’s when two people have been looking at each other for years that it becomes a miracle.” (For Fathers, from Heartland Samplers, 1991)
 

The lesson, of course, is that love isn’t something we just fall into. The concepts of love at first sight and falling in love make for good poetry, but the fact is that true love takes effort. In the words of Don Francisco, “love is not a feeling, it’s an act of your will” (Love is Not a Feeling, by Don Francisco, available at http://www.rockymountainministries.org/ ).

Men who want to experience true joy and happiness will recognize this fact and decide to love their wives, children, friends, etc. 
 
My hat is off to those who decide to love!
 
 
 

Mission Accomplished: Why Duty Calls

Mission Accomplished

The youngest of our three children married just a few days ago.  It was a wonderful occasion, filled with laughter, tears of joy, and the splendid love of our family and friends.  Our other two got married about three months apart in 2007, so my wife and I have now officially joined what is commonly called the “empty nest” crowd.  Well, there’s nothing empty about our nest, since we still have each other and we’re surrounded by pleasant memories and the love of our children and their spouses.  While my wife and I are certainly excited about our future together, we are also mindful of the trajectory on which we’ve launched the children with whom God blessed us, and our hopes, thoughts, and prayers will continue to be with them every day. 

Why Duty Calls?

As I reflect on the nearly three decades in which we raised our children, I clearly see things that worked well and things that didn’t.  I am mindful of both my strengths and shortcomings as a husband and father, just as I am aware of the lessons I learned along the way.  So now, with the benefit of near 20-20 hindsight, I feel a profound sense of duty to share what I’ve gleaned from experience with those who come after me, and this is the reason I am launching www.dutycalls.org.

What you can expect

Here at Duty Calls, I will share my own ideas and lessons learned, along with those of various other experts on topics about which I am passionate, with a particular emphasis on a man’s duty to his wife, children, community, and nation.  The sub-topics are nearly infinite – communication, leadership, prayer, compassion, providing financial support, education, patriotism, and, with apologies for borrowing a line from The King and I, etcetera, etcetera, etcetera.

Please note that I am not emphasizing men’s duties in order to exclude women, but rather because that is where my expertise is.  After all, I am a man.  While I am thrilled to observe things through the eyes of my wife of more than 30 years, I can only truly speak with authority about things from a man’s perspective.  That being said, I certainly welcome women as readers.  In fact, I hope that many women follow me here and direct the men in their lives to the site as well.  You’ll be glad you did.    

Finally, I don’t want to limit discussion to only those things I think of.  Instead, I will also respond to your comments and queries (email me at witstopmail@gmail.com) and gladly address the things that are of interest to you.  Please let me know what’s on your mind.

So here we go, men…Duty Calls!