10 Lessons on manhood from Joseph!

As i mentioned quite a while (before getting very, VERY sidetracked) i am trying to read the whole bible through before my 18th birthday. So far i am doing horrible. I am a firm believer in Yoda's "Try not, do or do not, there is no try." and i am very tempted to simply "do not". But then i will never become a Jedi knight. And that would be sad. Not really. But i do feel this needs to be one of those things i do rather than do not. So i have been trying. And just recently i was reading about Joseph. As in the dude with the shiny coat. Or at least it was shiny until his brothers got ticked off and...well, read the story your self (Genesis 37-50). So anyway, I have some lessons on manhood that i have learned from Joseph that i wanted to share with you all. Because i think it's cool. And also Joseph defies the accepted norm, which i think is awesome. So anyway, the things i have learned from Joseph about how to be a real man. 1. Real men ask for directions. In 37:15-17 when Joseph is wandering looking for his brothers he asked some random man "Have you seen them?" Therefore, REAL men ask for directions. 2. Real men are trustworthy, 3. responsible and 4. have good organizational skills. You will notice that in Potiphar's house (39:1-18) Joseph quickly rose to be "entrusted with all his business dealings" meaning that Potiphar must have really trusted him, because i don't know about any of you, but if i had some foreign slave working in my house i would i wouldn't trust him with any of my business dealings! So Joseph was trustworthy. And then in verse 6 Potiphar likes Joseph so much that he gives him "Complete administrative responsibility" meaning that he was responsible and must have had great organizational skills. I mean this was the house of the captain of the palace guard. This guy wasn't someone with a small house, this was a big rich guy.

5. Real men stand firm in the face of strong temptation, 6. wise and 7. real men run away. This is one of the most famous lessons from Joseph's life but every time i read it i like it all over again. Potiphar wasn't the only one who noticed how great Joseph was. Potiphar's wife decided she liked Joseph. And not just in a friendly way. She LIKED him. So she said "hey Joseph, come sleep with me". Now this probably wasn't some old hag who wanted to sleep with him. As the captain of the palace guard Potiphar could have his pick of Egyptian women, and i'm sure he didn't pick his wife for her personality and faithfulness. So this hot, rich, and powerful woman was throwing herself at his feet asking him to sleep with her and what does Joseph say? "NO!" But she really, REALLY likes him. So she keeps pressuring him. And pressuring him. And pressuring him. But he always refused her. He was the boss of the house. He could cover everything and no one would ever know. But he refused. He stood strong in the face of enormous temptation. And he was even wise enough to take measures to protect himself by avoiding her as much as possible. But then one day they were alone together and she grabbed him and demanded of him "SLEEP WITH ME!!" from his point of view at this time there were probably very few reasons to say no right then. They were alone. He was the boss of the house. Nothing to stop him. But he stood strong, and he was wise enough to know that this was too much for him, so he took off and ran out of the house. Wow. That just goes to prove real men are strong, wise, and do run away.

8. Real men make the best of things. After that nasty run in with Potiphar's wife Potiphar was understandably quite angry and threw Joseph in jail. I'm surprised he didn't kill him, as the captain of the guard i'm sure he had the power. But despite being in jail Joseph still made the best of things. He ended in charge of the prison this time (39:19-23). If i were in jail i seriously doubt i would be willing to cooperate with my jailer so much. 9. Real men are observant and 10. helpful. It almost goes without saying that in almost all the previous situations Joseph was pretty helpful. But now, in 40:6-7 he is both observant and helpful. He notices two of the other people in jail seem a bit down (now i would think "Hey, they're in jail, of course they're a little depressed!") so he asked them why they were feeling so down. And so they told him they had both had dreams and didn't have anyone to tell them what they mean. So Joseph says "God can tell you what they mean! Tell me about your dreams." and so he helps them out. Well he helps one out, but the other just finds out he's about to get his head stuck on a pole. So anyway, that's ten lessons from Joseph on what it means to be a true man. Real men:
1. Ask for directions
2. Are trustworthy
3. Are responsible
4. Have good organizational skills
5. Stand firm in the face of temptation
6. Are wise
7. Run away
8. Make the best of things
9. are observant
10. are helpful
And i still have 10 more chapters of Josephs life i could go through but if i do that i'll be here all night. So i might add more later. For example 11. real men cry when they're hurt. Yeah, but that will come later. But until then, Cya!