A man is supposed to have a job, and he is supposed to have responsibility. A man is supposed to have something to do before he takes upon himself the responsibility of providing for and caring for a woman as his wife.
My staff and I often counsel young women (and those who are old enough to know better) who tell us, "Well, I'm just in love with that man.
"He doesn't have a job (those employers just don't understand him), and he doesn't have any money, but we love each other. Isn't that enough? Love is all we need."
I usually shake my head and say, "You can be foolish about this if you want to, and you can also tell yourself that you love each other all you want.
"That won't change the fact that you can't eat 'love,' And 'love' wont keep you warm in the cold winter wind—you need a warm coat, dry shoes and a weather-tight home. You'd better find a man who has a job!"
A man without a job is an emasculated man. Men need to work. God gave us a crucial clue about the measure of a good man in the book of Genesis: A man is a man because he has responsibilities.
He is not a "man" merely by virtue of his anatomy—every male mammal created by God can make that hollow brag. Anatomy can only make you male.
You can be 50 years old and still be a mere boy when it comes to shouldering man-sized responsibilities and pressures.
What makes a man a man isn't his physical size or his ability to fight or excel at some physical skill, such as playing basketball, running track or lifting an impressive amount of weight on the bar.
The real test of a man is how much weight he can carry in responsibilities, leadership pressures and commitments.
What makes a man a man is his ability to shoulder responsibilities and carry them out faithfully and consistently. True manhood isn't based upon any physical attribute, outward quality or particular age range.
See, you can be 23-years old and be a man. It is based upon how you take care of responsibility
A man is responsible. That is why God set a precedent with Adam that says a man needs to know how to get out on his own, accept responsibilities and learn how to take care of himself honorably before he assumes those responsibilities for a mate.
Only a foolish woman would many a man "straight out of his mama's house" before he has learned how to do things for himself. The precedent for safety and wisdom in choosing marriage partners is right there in the Bible.
God gave the first man two jobs before He gave him Eve. First God gave Adam some responsibility.
Only then would He entrust him with a lifetime mate and companion.
Excerpt permission granted by Harrison House Publishers