Give your Man Time For Friends

It's Friday. Time for my favorite writing exercise of the week. Want to play Five Minute Friday? It’s easy! 

1. Write for 5 minutes flat – no editing, no over thinking, no backtracking
2. Link back here and invite others to join in.
3. Meet & encourage someone who linked up before you.
OK, are you ready? Give us your best five minutes on: Community.

Raising kids shoves out our need for community. Staying home, focusing on family, drives women together. And women, given time, will push toward vulnerability after the first one takes the risk because women love to see real.

Every Friday my husband meets with friends at Tim Hortons ( a northern fast food joint known for coffee and doughnuts). They stay for hours when schedules allow, talking forcefully and fast. They would offend me if I was present for I don't enjoy the art of powerful opinion defending. They come with agendas, this is going on in my life, does this scripture apply? They bluntly point out each other's sins and laugh from the belly and probably scare some customers to their cars. This community of men is so different from the one I share with women, but life giving all the same.

I know staying home with kids is crazy good and crazy hard. And the need to have another adult around is strong. God made us all for community. It should be a defining feature of our Christian walk. But over the years I've noticed wives striving for community and men not having as much, whether they are tired from working or feel guilty about leaving the family again or just don't know where to find it. So wives, give your husband a blessing to leave the family, push him out the door with a kiss. Encourage him to find a community of men, because we need both communities: family and friends.

Note: After my 5-minutes was up, I went looking for photos of men hanging out. On the different image sites I use, I couldn't find one, except for men at a business lunch in ties!