Grow Up: Four Steps to Becoming a Man

Fathers, grandfathers, pastors, and pundits have a way of making manhood sound complicated. It isn’t. Our culture has made it seem that way, but the basic task of becoming a man is surprisingly simple. Today masculinity is treated as a problem to be solved rather than a virtue to be cultivated. Young men are surrounded by confusion. Many have grown up without an engaged father. The United States has one of the highest rates of father-absence in the developed world. Public conversations swing between caricatures—”toxic masculinity” on one side and the exaggerated bravado of the online manosphere on the other. Neither extreme tells us what healthy manhood looks like. The answer is far less complicated. To become a man is to stop acting like a child. You do not need a degree in developmental psychology to recognize infantile behavior. Children avoid responsibility. They depend on others to meet every need. They demand immediate gratification. They become frustrated easily. Their emotions rule their decisions. They resist authority and naturally view the world through the lens of self. That is exactly how children are supposed to behave. It is not how men should behave. Manhood is not a mysterious ideal reserved for […] The post Grow Up: Four Steps to Becoming a Man appeared first on Man in the Mirror.