The Life I Lead, from Mary Poppins
I feel a surge of deep satisfaction
Much as a king astride his noble steed
When I return from daily strife to heart and wife
How pleasant is the life I lead!
Mrs. Banks:
[Spoken]
Dear, it's about the children...
Mr. Banks:
Yes, yes, yes!
[Sung]
I run my home precisely on schedule
At 6:01, I march through my door
My slippers, sherry, and pipe are due at 6:02
Consistent is the life I lead!
It's grand to be an Englishman in 1910
King Edward's on the throne;
It's the age of men
I'm the lord of my castle
The sov'reign, the liege!
I treat my subjects: servants, children, wife
With a firm but gentle hand
Noblesse oblige!
It's 6:03 and the heirs to my dominion
Are scrubbed and tubbed and adequately fed
And so I'll pat them on the head
And send them off to bed
Ah! Lordly is the life I lead!
A British nanny must be a gen'ral!
The future empire lies within her hands
And so the person that we need to mold the breed
Is a nanny who can give commands!
A British bank is run with precision
A British home requires nothing less!
Tradition, discipline, and rules must be the tools
Without them - disorder!
Catastrophe! Anarchy! -
In short, we have a ghastly mess!
Looking at the earlier examples of masculinity, we must put our scaffolding on securely and beware of the despising of our fathers.
I find this song, from Mary Poppins, though a stereotype, it is an accurate depiction of the aim of earlier European generations.
Time management and Money stewardship were dominant and Husbanding and Fathering were smaller wheels on the vehicle, if on the vehicle at all.
There was a folly in looking at the masculinity of the past that viewed femininity as inferior in personhood, as opposed to, in office.
As we look at the image of God, reflected in the lyrics of our elders about their elders; some of the expressions are in anger, because they were the ones who lost their fathers to the industrial revolution. They cry, in the lyrics of mimicking their elders. Was their way right? Could we ever get back to some of those ambitions, from this side of the Feministic revolution? I think not. I think that there are diamonds in their study, but that for the most part Chauvenism created Feminism.
In Chauvinism or in Feminism, we are called to look at God's standards and not the standards that our forefathers encrypted on the walls of the caves of civilization that is around us. God is Sovereign and He is to be imitated in His loving servant leadership. But, we must take the diamonds out of the cave of prior civilizations before they collapse around us.
This diamond is the diamond of time management and control of the home and the how's of this that was passed down in the journals of time.
This means making a schedule for the morning and for the evening time. This means controlling yourself first, so that you will be the man that God wants to use to manage a family in the fear of God.
Some men major in precision and some major in the loving service. God calls men to be merciful, loving and precise in our leadership.
Lets start with the scheduling.
