Father's Day is a time when men enjoy receiving manly gifts, especially movies about manly men. My favorite movie features John Wayne portraying Capt. Nathan Briddles of the U. S. Cavalry in "She Wore a Yellow Ribbon." A grizzled Civil War veteran facing the end of his career, Briddles is a walking cornucopia of manliness. His approach to life is summed up in two words: Never apologize!

When I was a younger man, I am afraid I took John Wayne's counsel too much to heart, becoming a bit more obnoxious than I needed to be. As I grew older and entered into fatherhood, I found another two-word guideline in the Bible that produces better results. Right after the Bible tells of how God created man, these two words serve as God's marching orders to help men fulfill their calling in life: "The LORD God took the man and put him in the garden of Eden to work it and keep it" (Genesis 2:15). This is the Bible's masculine mandate: men are to work and keep in the relationships where God has placed them.

John Wayne knew that men like simple instructions and God knows this too, so He gave men only two main tasks to perform in life. Adam's first calling was to work the Garden. In the context of the Garden in Genesis 2, this word means to cultivate. In short, God calls men to serve in order to make good things grow and abound. Adam's second task was to keep the Garden. This idea involves protection: the word for to keep is used elsewhere of guardians who keep watch and make safe. So in addition to cultivating and growing, God calls men to protect and keep safe those under their care.