SecondIron's Blog

Sharpening Iron to Live Second

Being a Father to the Fatherless

This article was originally published and distributed on Medium.  Recently I started a 40 Day devotional with a group of online friends. Little did I know that by the end of the first week this would need writing. On day 3 entitled a Tale of Two Fathers the author paints a picture of fatherhood. Fatherhood is a loose term as many of us envision a father different from what we had. There are some where the father was absent or distant. Some where their loving hearts reflects the heart of Christ. Whichever father you did or did not have, neither can match the love of your heavenly Father. Men tend to get consumed with work, hobbies or the hopes of never growing up that their children never know them. Careers come before family, success matters more than anything. Meanwhile small hearts break wanting just to be noticed by their fathers. I spent most of my own childhood going unnoticed. Click To Tweet It seems in today’s world the only way these children get the attention they seek is through pain. Attempts to obtain a father’s approval seem to be in vain, the only time they are noticed is when they are in trouble. Many boys that want to become men turn to their friends as their fathers are absent. These friends are not friends really as they soon will find out when they abandon them too. Instead of focusing on the dreams of tomorrows, their dreams get squashed. Where their fathers should stand encouraging them […]

5 Friends Every Guy Needs

According to science and research people can usually only have about 100 to 150 real friends. If that were the case then why do we spend so much time ‘friending’ people we will never be friends with. It is not like the hundreds if not thousands of friends have a personal relationship with us. Better yet even the number of 150 sounds intimidating and well virtually impossible. Most men have a few friends every guy needs and nothing more. Working with the number 150, realistically that is not obtainable even counting all your friends and family. Could you imagine trying to develop real relationships with that many? Many of us struggle with social anxiety when the room fills with more than a handful of people, much less hundreds. This number has been researched for years and has been narrowed down to a bit less than 150 real friends. Take the classmates from school that you no longer talk to out of the equation. That alone should eliminate at least a third of your friends. Now lets take away those co-workers that you would never hang out with outside of work or confide in. If you remove the distant cousins and even local family that you only talk to at family reunions. Finally if you take away the friends that never have time for you. So what is your real number now? … not counting your spouse and kids. I would guess you are probably sitting at right about four or five. As men we can […]

Why We Have to Take a Stand

The time to take a stand is now. Like many communities in America since the recession began my hometown has been plagued with a disease. This disease has eroded the city from its core. What was once a friendly big city with a small town feel has become a place where crime and fear has taken over. We can no longer turn on the news or even listen to the radio without being bombarded with evil. It has become common to hear about shooting in our schools, workplaces and neighborhoods. Our country is becoming overrun by a callous society that has not dignity or respect for life. Every day we read about someone’s child being shot and killed. It has become normal for robberies and home invasions to control the headlines. We naturally get angry at all the violence. We talk about how this and that must be done. Yet we stand by on the sidelines and allow it to breach the headlines. Our first instinct is to lock our doors, arm our wives with shotguns and live in fear. We spend hours at the gun ranges to regain our masculinity and teach our wives to shoot at paper targets. Yet the crimes still happen, the breaking news reports become more frequent. When does it all end, when do we as men take a stand. The victims are no longer faceless from some other town. Soon we will attend the funeral of a friend or child that we knew as well. When does it come time […]