We had a good start to the discussion about loneliness and the impact it has on men. We unpacked a little bit about how men are raised to be more protective of their feelings, leading to us setting up barriers to protect those feelings along the way. Every time we are hurt, we put up a new barrier and further fortify ourselves against future attacks. Those lead to us being less than forgiving sometimes when someone does hurt us, intentionally or not. It also leads us to be a little more sensitive to those risks and more barriers. All the while carrying the baggage of blame and holding back forgiveness. In the end our lives can be so overburdened that we almost cannot even face new days with any kind of optimism or hope.
As we work through this topic, we will touch base on things like Forgiveness – what it means, how it works, who deserves it, Trust – the chaos and risk of doing that, Healing – letting our wounds have some sunlight and air so they can be erased, Grace – how to let things be and accept people in all of their glorious flawed behaviors, and the blessing of Silence – why its important to find that, what it does, how to listen.
While all of this is important to us as men, its even more important to those around us who we can teach and lead by example. The hope is always to find a way to start planting the seeds of Grace around us as we find ourselves getting through our own barriers, so that others can start to heal and eventually start planting their own seeds.
