New Online Course!
Man of the Household
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Why take this course:
As natural as it is, being man of the household does not come naturally, especially today. We need to be intentional and take specific steps to become the man we want to be. The course goal is this: to be the man of my household, a true husband and father, taking first responsibility for crafting the good life in my home, and so fulfilling what my nature calls me to, my heart longs for, and my loved ones need and deserve.
To whatever extent we become that man, it is its own reward. Yet also our wife, our children, our friends, and all our loved ones will be grateful and reap the fruits of our efforts. For generations to come.
If you are interested, I would love for you to join me in this course.
This course has four modules:
- Man as Crafter of a Household
- Man as Husband
- Man as Father
- Man’s Work, Leisure, and Daily Life in the Home
Each module has:
- a pre-recorded lecture (viewable at one’s own schedule)
- a worksheet for formulating resolutions and a concrete personal plan
Each student can:
- access my live online classroom at various hours throughout the four weeks for questions and discussion
- email me questions to which I will respond directly by email
This course is designed for:
- husbands and fathers, young and not so young
- men preparing for marriage
- other men who seek to understand better their vocation to fatherhood, through considering fatherhood in its most obvious instance
- men’s groups, Bible Studies, Exodus 90, marriage prep groups, etc.
What To Do?
- Sign up for the Course (for men)
- Signup for the Man of the Household mailing list (this is for everyone!) and receive the full Four-Part Plan for Being Man of the Household.
- See below for featured Wednesday Quotes that address the theme of household.
Facing an Anti-Family Economy
Economic demands often work against your being a man in your household. There is a plan for manhood you can discover and execute starting at home.
Responding to the Dominant Culture
Strong cultural pressures both pull you away from home and invade your life there. You can take responsibility and thrive.
Overcoming the Feeling of Powerlessness
Confused and isolated, sometimes you don’t know where to turn. You can become the man you know you can be.
Featured Posts:
Cherishing Your Spouse in Your Children
“Goodbye Aeneas. Cherish our love in the son it gave us.” Virgil, The Aeneid This stunningly powerful goodbye between spouses says so much. A son, it says, was ‘given’ to a couple by the love they bore one another. Love between spouses is already itself a gift. That...
Men in Quarantine: 3 Ideas for Rediscovering Marriage
“What we share now is this home of ours.” “So, my dear, we must recognize what God has assigned to each of us, and try our hardest to carry through our respective responsibilities.” Xenophon, The Estate Manager Marriage is often an exercise in recognizing the gift in...
A Husband: Responsible for the Household
Ischomachus’s wife: “My mother told me that my job was to be responsible.” Ischomachus: “My father gave me the same advice.” Xenophon, The Estate Manager One casualty of the decline of the household is that men and women don’t see their role in it as central to their...
Recent Posts:
Physical Home as Common Ground
My wife said to me, “John, we need to be here, together. This is our common ground.” Recently my wife and I were struck anew by a significant aspect of being-at-home, in the physical place. Our lives are given a center that grounds us and draws us together. Of late we...
On a Wedding Day: A Glimpse of Marriage Itself
“One could find no other association more necessary nor more pleasant than that of men and women.” Musonius Rufus Last Saturday was one of those days around which the rest of life clusters—either as preparation or as consequence. I committed my beloved eldest daughter...
An Empty Nest
How selfhood begins with a walking away, And love is proved in the letting go. Cecil Day-Lewis, Walking Away We have been observing the progress of a family of swallows in our barn for the last few weeks. Yesterday, the three young ones fledged. After spending many...
Manual Workers, Wisdom, and Cosmic Order
“How can he become wise who handles the plough? ...each becomes wise through his work.” Sirach Ben Sira and Aristotle are of one mind regarding the scribe’s pursuit of wisdom. “The wisdom of the scribe depends on the opportunity of leisure; and he who has little...
A Wife in Her Well-Ordered Home
“Like the sun rising in the heights of the Lord, so is the beauty of a good wife in her well-ordered home.” Sirach There is so much to fathom in these words in praise of a good wife. What a revelatory simile/metaphor! Like the sun rising, so is the beauty of a good...
Ruling Our Households Like the Cosmos
“...when he made them he precisely determined their portions. He arranged his works in an eternal order, and their dominion for all generations; they neither hunger nor grow weary, and they do not cease from their labors...they will never disobey his word.” Sirach...
When a Man Becomes a Priest
When my daughter was three her uncle was in formation to become a priest. One morning she asked: “After Uncle (X) becomes a priest, will he ever become a man again?” It dawned on us that this amusing question has real weight. An ancient Latin word for priest means...
Craftsmanship Vs. Money-Making
“...you thought that the shepherd as a shepherd tends the sheep not with a view to their own good, but like a mere diner or banqueter with a view to the pleasures of the table; or, again, as a trader for sale in the market, and not as a shepherd.” Plato, Republic Both...
To Be or Not To Be, a Craftsman
“And aren’t the respective crafts by nature set over them to seek and provide what is to their advantage?” Socrates, Plato’s Republic Rereading the first book of the Republic, I was struck by a bolt of lightning. Plato saw the root question of human life. To be or not...
A Time in Life for Pruning, Now
Before she comes, prune the vines. It is better this way. Hesiod, Works and Days The other day my wife and I were pruning our peach trees. According to Hesiod we were late—for the star Arcturus (the ‘she’ in the quotation) appears at the end of February. As Hesiod...
When a Man Proposes
“...for a common life is above all things natural to the female and to the male.” Aristotle, Oeconomica Even as marriage between a man and a woman is undermined, ridiculed, or simply set aside, we naturally feel the power and poignancy of a man proposing to a woman....
Having a Homely House in Ugly Times
“...the Last Homely House...a perfect house, whether you like food or sleep or story-telling or singing, or just sitting and thinking best, or a pleasant mixture of them all. Merely to be there was a cure for weariness, fear, and sadness.” J.R.R. Tolkien, The...