I am in the middle of building my first house. I use the term "I am" rather loosely because the work is being done by others. My wife is an architect, so she has designed this house from the ground up. Her father is our builder/contractor. He loves building and this has become a dream come true for the both of them, building a house together. I am what you would call an active bystander. I have no experience in building a house, not am I professionally connected to anything close to construction. Therefore I help by lifting up things, making runs to the nearest store, and holding levels and such. To say the least, it has been an enlightening experience.
We are still at the beginning stages of this project. We have poured the footings for the foundation, built the basement walls, and poured the basement floor. (If you want to hear a GREAT story ask me about the basement pour sometime...what a test that was!). Through this process we have used so many different materials: wood, metal, concrete, plastic and PVC, raw and manufactured materials, gravel, varied chemicals and more. In each stage of this project I have found myself without the right tools for the job. It is February now, but we poured the basement floor in January. It was a bad time to realize that I did not own a pair of insulated gloves!
In our journey as men we are going to be running into situations where specific tools will be required for the job; Marriage, jobs and careers, parenthood, and these are just the every day grind for most of us. Each one of these tasks will require a tool that is right for the job. A very hard lesson that I have learned is that just having the tool does not mean that it will be useful in my hands. A hammer in my father-in-law's hands delivers efficient results in multiple areas all over the job site. However, with my level of experience swinging a hammer the results are far less then spectacular. I need to access and practice these tools frequently in order for them to be useful.
I want to introduce you to a free resource that can add more tools to your toolbox along with simple and easy ways to practice using these tools before they become needed in your life. A good friend of mine started this site in order to help men like me and you and it has turned into much more then he could have imagined. Follow this link to his web page Blueprint for Men to see what it is all about. For free access to resources follow the instructions below:
-From main page select "Resources" form the selections menu at the top of the page
-The second paragraph reads "Free Access to Right Now Media"
-Follow the Instructions there to gain FREE access to streaming content
-Think of this content as a Christian Netflix that provides devotional content for multiple demographics