What has this so called "women's movement" done and why do I admire it so?

The womens movement that I am enthused about centers around a way of thinking, doing, and nurturing. The following list reveals the substantive empheses that they have fanned into flame:

1. The Homeschooling movement and the role of classical education.
2. The Nurturing wife/mother/woman who has a specific biblical role with particular strengths and weaknesses
3. Related to 2. they have begun to revive a rich heritage of homemaking that emphasizes the practices of sewing, cooking, child-rearing, home-care, and health (which has led to grinding grains, canning, and many other natural food healthcare).
4. They have established this movement in the Scriptures and made it primarily a biblical and divine vocation rather than simply some ideal of a life.
5. They have propped themselves up with endless resources, materials, supplies, websites, seminars, and societies for training the next generation.

One of the primary reasons that I admire this movement is because it is precisely that: admirable. It is not grossly immature, rebellious, self-seeking, fake, or what is morally worse - cheesy. It is the peak of admirable qualities in womanhood.

Another reason that this movement is important is that it is the hope of the next generation for believers and nonbelievers in many ways. Their emphases on home education has revived both the intelligence in young people in our culture and specifically in our Church at large. It is stated that 90% of homeschooled children involve themselves actively in politics.

Also, they are among the most preferred of the greatest universities. Most homeschooling families have multiple children who grow up family influenced rather than peer influenced and this appraoch appears to me to produce more of a godly "next generation" than anything else I have seen. If Christian families did nothing else than raise children in this kind of livingsphere then I am convinced they would evangelize the world and society twice as fast. They are not trained in science only but also languages, logic, rhetoric/debate, and philosophy.

Their emphasis on health and food is invaluable and the return to a "homesteading" lifestyle has recognized the neurotic tendecies of our culture and battled them with living therapeutics.

It is not obvious at all that men have done this same thing on their end. Being the head of our homes this ought to be an exciting movement that awaits our own stepping up to the plate. How might we begin to do this?

First, we can find our part in the things already established by the women's movement: becoming knowledgeable about child rearing, money management, time organization, health and food, agriculture and husbandry.

Second, we can ground our own pursuit in the Scriptures. In other words, we can make it a specifically Christian aspiration rather than a "health" aspiration. In this way, "health" is a by-product responsibility of our vocation to manage our bodies well. The qualities of working with animals becomes not an end itself but an offspring of our Christian vocation to be involved with creation.

Third, we can not only re-establish a heritage of manhood but also work toward passing them on by teaching our children (think about teaching your son how to tie all the workable knots or how to skin a deer or how to make a dovetail joint or how to train a falcon?).

Fourth, we can open up for pursuit those distinguishing qualities of being a man (analyzing, debating - every son should know how to argue well, resolve, suffering, hunting, etc.).

Finally, and this is where this blog comes in, we can start a website with resources such as book lists (for father/son projects), seminars, blogs where men can share their insights and struggles, and articles geared specifically toward these issues as they pertain to men.

I want this blog to be an experiment before a plunge. I wonder how many of you feel that there are "tools" of manhood that are missing. The Wesley's had their holy club, Ben Franklin his own society, the inklings (C.S. Lewis) their Socratic club, and I think we too might do best if we have a society. But we must have desire before we can have anything at all.