Today, while preparing for a counseling session, I was reading The Hidden Value of a Man, where Smalley and Trent identify a “Gold Sword” of compassion and encouragement men need to use. The “Silver Sword” is the one men use to battle through life. The “Gold Sword” is the one they use to nurture, protect, and encourage others.

The authors wrote:

Men tend to remember for decades specific words of encouragement their fathers spoke to them. When a man makes an effort to pick up the gold sword and use it under God’s control, the world takes note. Women and children certainly take note. And the more we pick it up, the more we will shape those who love us and look to us to help define their lives. ~Smalley and Trent in The Hidden Value of a Man, p.93.

That’s truth.

I can tell you it’s truth because a memory I tend to savor is one where my father said after church one Sunday morning, “Steve, your a good preacher.”

Now, the question becomes, “How can I wield the Gold Sword in a similar way to help those around me become the men and women God wants them to be?”