"Jed"

At an auto repair shop in California 15 years ago. A man about 65 years old. "Jed" was grumpy, impatient. In one of our conversations I asked him how many children he had. His quick and loud response: "I have no idea!" made me laugh in the first moment because it caught me off guard - but I quickly recovered and Jed went to answer a phone call. The moment was lost. The fool! Jed was insinuating he'd been with so many women that he had no idea how many children he had fathered. Fathered? No! 65 years old and still had not grown the heart of a man. First of all, for you to actually say something like that tells me you see using women as some measure of manhood... wrong. You probably lied in school about such supposed 'conquests' and hopefully you were lying to me at the shop that day. In the event that you were not lying, I guess your father was not there, gave a bad example, or was too uncomfortable to tell you anything. Let me say this to you now: Lying to a woman about your love for her in order to get your desires met may result in the conception of a child but it does not make you a father Jed. It does not make you a man. It makes you stupid. In school I recall some stories (lies) guys would tell in the locker room. I guess for a teenager it is important for some boys to let other boys know they are sex-savvy because it makes them feel manly. For those teens who find this website I want to say: It is not manly. It shows your lack of integrity and your lack of understanding regarding what it means to be a man. Stay tuned. This blog is for you, too.

I will probably type this a million times: Dads, guide your sons in this truth: A real man shows honor and gives respect to the women in his life. Otherwise he will grow old and say stupid things like Jed. Poor Jed, you must be around 80 years old by now. If you're still breathing, I wonder if you are also still trying to prove that you achieved authentic manhood in your life. In the same way you had "no idea" how many children you had; you also had "no idea' what it meant to be a man. If you are in eternity, perhaps you have met some of your children already. Maybe. If you left a woman alone and pregnant - she might have been 'helped' by a culture that pretends to have a 'solution'.

I ask God to pierce the hearts of men like Jed with their own foolish statements and bring true conversion. I believe miracles still happen. I believe it is possible for guys like Jed to become who God created them to be before they leave this earth. Amen.