The Baddest Boy in the Bible

i've begin reading a book, sent to my by a very dear friend..."the sampson syndrome". in the last few months i've read lots of "guy" books, and just today i think it hit me as to to why. well actually, there are probably two reasons...i have been blessed with all girls and (1) thru the years we've read so many "girl" books, and (2) realizing that my girls are somewhat (ok VERY) interested in guys, i figure i better stay a step ahead of them. (grin) seriously, i do see my girls' personalities and hearts coming alive and see them looking to their future.

i'm not feeling stressed, yet i do feel it's my responsibility to have wisdom for them as they ask. not that i have all the perfect answers, but that at least they can have some options from someone they trust. i've covered everything in prayer and now i'm enjoying learning from others who are much wiser than me.

so, anyway the sampson syndrome talks about strong guys. my girls are definitley drawn to the strong type guy...i don't mean the macho, physically strong, but the inside strength that God created in them. the kind of strength that shows that God gave men everything they need to "make it happen", "succeed", "come thru". as john eldredge puts it "do guys really dream of being a nice guy, or do they dream of being dashing? and girls, are you looking for nice, or do you dream of the knight and shining armor....strong enough, brave enough to resque you from the villians." (paraphrased)

to me their are two types of guys...guys who aren't afriad to be leaders (even tho they may fail at times) and the ones that won't even consider leading (becos they already know they will fail).

of course as i study sampson, i see that he has no problem accepting the leadership role, however allows his strength to get in his way. men of strength have many great aspects...full of adventure, fun, excitment. at the same time there are many tendencies that can cause these mighty warriors to fall. some of these things may be, strong men tend to

1. break rules...sometimes they find it difficult to realize that most rules are good. take any rule you can think of and ask yourself what what happens if everybody disobeyed it. your imagination will tell you if it's a good rule.

2. disregard boundries...not that they wake up one day and suddenly decide to trash their bounderies. instead they generally slip gradually into a life of disobedience by making a series of small compromises....and all the time relying on their great strength to be the saftey net. "i can handle it" was probably sampson's motto.

3. ignore good advice...they often are bound and determined to do things their way, even at the risk of disaster. sampson is a perfect example of what can happen when strong, capable men close their ears to good advice. the book suggest that strong men tend to feel that asking for advice appears to make them seem weak. when actually, look at some of the most strong, successful men in history...they have surrounded themselves with great advisors. it's said that woodrow wilson once asked a member of his staff to identify the most intelligent, most informed, and most eloquent member of the opposing political party. "what for?" the staffer asked. "becos i want to hire him," wilson responded. "hire him , what in the world for?" "i want to keep me from going blind." wilson said. point is before you willingly blind yourself to all opposing points of view, stop and consider a simple but powerful truth that pres. wilson must have understood: the world is full of people who have achieved great success without doing things your way.

these are just 3 of the 12 negative tendancies that this study gives. and i must say that "strong" men have sooooo many great postive effects and purposes. and personally i hate focusing on negatives, but there's just wisdom in knowing some things.