Courageous

Yay it finally sunny here! I hear we may actually have three straight days of good weather which would be an absolute miracle! Last weekend we went to a friends place and watched the movie Courageous. It was a fabulous movie and the fact that basically these guys have done these movies with no training and with the actors being people from their church is amazing. My favourite movie of theirs will aways be Facing The Gaints because it spoke into a very difficult point of our lives but I was very impressed with Courageous as it really did seem to have stepped up that next notch of film making. Without spoiling the movie plot for people I really just wanted to say what it caused for us was a lot of dicussion about the changing role of men in society, the premise being that the main male characters are fabulous in their chosen careers yet not so great in their home an family life. Their not terriable but this movie is all about stepping it up a notch. Now this theme isn't much a of a shock for most people, often the choice is between more time at home or doing your job to get to the next level, payrise or in some cases even to retain your job. From the discussions I've had with a lot of family men life can be a guilt ridden road which often making them feel torn in too many directions, always letting someone down and lacking the personal time they actually need to survive life in general without high stress levels. What I found interesting was the discussion in our house that it caused. My son is study the middle ages at the moment for history and throughout all his text books their are famous quotes and pictures of men who are living in a brotherhood. Knights and soldiers, with famous writers describing their devotion to each other and protecting their families and kingdoms. There is accountability in these relationships, there is friendship, trust and a sense of that old fashioned all for one mentality that I wonder if most modern men have lost due to time and pressure. With the stresses of work, social life and family it seems like a hard ask to expect men to keep up this kind of relationship yet I wonder if that is what is missing in our young men? Do they feel this need for a brotherhood, accountabiliy and respect yet can't find it in the world we live in now. Just seeing a lot of young men sit back almost letting the world carry on around them as they leave school to do nothing but play games and eat I wonder if they have seen their Fathers life experiences and maybe even their Grandfathers and thought this is just not what I want to spend my life doing. We made the decision a long time ago that regardless of my husbands job our family would come first. It is at times very hard to stick to but the benefits we have seen in our kids and the health benefits for my husband totally outweigh a rise in pay or a new title. I've always enjoyed the saying "when your in that hospital bed dying you're never going to be wishing you'd spent more time at work but you will be wishing you'd spent more time with your loved ones and living life" When I spent time planning the characters in my book it was very easy to look around me and find plenty of inspiration for work focused stressed out Dads and husbands, yet it was incrediably hard to find good examples of balanced happy fathers enjoying life and their families. I find that really sad but I hope movies like Courageous will really encourage men to look at where their priorities are and for us women in their lives to encourage them every step of the way. Isobial :)