Ambition: The word ambition was brought to my attention tonight from someone who made the comment “I just want a man with ambition.” The word “ambition” stuck with me. So purposeful yet so simple. As I sat and thought about that simple comment, it summed up the one word that I have searched endlessely for to try and describe the 1 characteristic to describe a good man. To have ambition doesn’t classify it simply with ones career, it classifies it with everything in life that you have a passion for, everything that you put your time and effort and heart into. To have ambition means to go full fledge with your hopes and dreams. It means if you are going to commit to something, you aren’t going to settle for anything less than your very best. There is no such thing as perfect, but a man with ambition will try his hardest every single day to step up and be as close to perfect as he can possibly be. Of course the first thing I think about is ambition with God. A man who sets out to be just like our Heavenly Father. A man who tires the pages of the number one selling book of all time- our guide to life, The bible. He lives his whole life being available for all of God’s purpose. Someone who realizes and knows that he isn’t here to satisfy his own wants and needs, but for God’s greater glory. To have ambition to live your life as a godly Christian will reflect in all aspects of your life. Slow to anger, love, gentleness, humbleness, to simply strive everyday to be just like God. Someone who sets out to change and help our world, just like God wants us to do. Someone who stands up no matter what the situation. Someone who stands strong and does not fall into the disfunction and temptation of our sick world. A man with ambition won’t fall into the traps of the devil because his eyes are on the one and only prize, Pleasing God.

The second thing that comes to mind is a man’s ambition with his relationships. Men if you are in love with a woman and commit to her, Step up. A man with ambition will work every single day at making his wife his number one priority second to God. Your priorities aren’t what you say they are, you reveal your priorities by your every action. Which is tested in trying situations. You must make her feel loved, safe, secure, prized, wanted, valued, cherished, and respected. For her to never go a day in her life where she feels vulnerable, where she never for once has to question your love for her. A man with ambition will study diligently. Not only sources on how to be a better spouse and a Godly man, but someone who will study her heart. To learn the ins and outs of her soul, and what makes her heart tick. What makes her laugh and what absolutely tears her heart into shreds. And if there is something that you think is weird that upsets her, to have the ambition to divulge into why it hurts her, and to have the respect to never hurt her again. Stand firm to that promise. It’s not about you. Relationships are not for selfish people. People fight battles we know nothing about. It’s so sad in our society where little boys are raised to never show “weakness.” To be harder, to not be soft. To never show your guts because it will come off as weak. Guess what men? That is the true definition of weak! True strength is when you can stand strong on what you believe and who you believe in. You are weak if you don’t believe in love, you are weak if you put your selfish needs above her, you are weak if you can say something that you know would break her heart. You are weak if you are scared to show your emotions and scared to be real with yourself and with the rest of the world. Real strength comes in showing that you do have a heart and a soul and being proud of that for the one simple fact that your strength comes from God and not from your own power. And with that strength God intends you to use it for his greater glory, and that is to take care of the blessings he has set aside for us. If you don’t lead your home, the devil will.

The third thing that comes to mind is a mans ambition as a father. I was raised without my biological father- but with a few special men that I get to call a father.  I didn’t let them into my world easily because of the underlying hurt from my father. Why would I let another man in who would just eventually let go Iike my dad did? I won’t get into all the clearly sad details, but I have worked my entire life overcoming the issues that come without having a father- with the main repercussion of feeling so unworthy. With that being said, I have forgiven my dad. Without him I wouldn’t be here and wouldn’t be the woman I am today. I wouldn’t have the strength that was imbedded in me having to grow up without “my daddy” to fight for me. Or a father who was my safety net when the world was falling down around me. That one constant in a girls life. I have the most amazing mother who did the best job to fill both spots as a mother and father, and man did she do an outstanding job. I still don’t quite grasp how she did it. I am a momma’s girl who still always yearned to be a daddy’s girl as well. I fought hard for myself. God only knows how he let me keep my gentle soul. Someone once told me “never let the world make you hard” and I vowed to myself to never loose the heart and kindred soul that God let me come into this world with. So with that I am thankful that my dad chose to walk out of my life when I was 4. I am the woman I am today because of that. A dad’s role is one of the most important jobs besides being a Godly husband and man. All children have their own destiny but fathers have two choices that play a vital role in your child’s destiny: to step up and be an example for their future, or sit back and watch it fall around them. Dads, every action and word that radiates in you around your children molds these children into who they will become one day. Children are never very good at listening to direction and words, but they have mastered the skill of watching and repeating everything you do. I see so many fathers who do not value their wives, and these sons grow up to be men who become the downfall of their marriage because they never had an example. Our divorce rates keep sky rocketing because they were never taught the value of marriage and of simply being a Godly man with some sort of chivalry. I see girls whose fathers have mouths of a sailor, with no manners whatsoever who devalue women all around them and disrespect their own wives. These daughters repeat behaviors and settle for men who do the same as their daddy because that was “normal” and they settle for men who do not value them as a woman or as a wife. Show your daughters how a man opens a door, how he keeps a clean mouth in the presence of a lady, how to court your wife, one who never lets his eyes wonder, how to be gentle with women, one who puts the phone or remote down. Fathers don’t you want the best for your children? Do you want to watch some man degrade and not value your little girl one day? I always love the saying “men watch how you break a woman’s heart so you will know how to put your little girls heart back together one day when her heart gets broken the same way.” Stand up, have morals and values. You create everyday what your children will choose to live in the rest of their lives. Don’t be their curse that they don’t know how to fight off. Don’t be the voice inside their head that tells them they aren’t worthy, or that they don’t deserve the very best, or that they are fat, or that it doesn’t matter how they treat people. These daddy’s little girls are daughters of the King. They do deserve the very best. God counts every tear that falls from her eyes. And these sons deserve lessons and examples everyday of how to survive in this cruel world. Dads be that. You want the best for you children, then bless them with that. It’s the best gift you can give them as a father, to be the best man you can be so that they can go on with years of experience of how a husband, father, and a man is supposed to act. If we had more daddy’s that stepped up to the men they should be, this world would have a whole lot less problems. If we don’t teach the world to follow Christ, the world will teach them not to.

Someone once said “many things aren’t easy in life. We get the same 365 days a year, 7 days a week, and 24 hours in a day that some of the most ambitious people known in history have gotten .” A man with ambition will know where his priorities should be. Your priorities are your character. In a generation where everyone acts like having emotions makes you weak, I appreciate those who spill their soul to me and can be real with themselves and to stand up and make a difference in this beautiful yet cruel world. Men stand up and be real- not only with yourselves, but with the very things that make your world go round. The very blessings that are only loaned to us while here on earth. You only get 1 shot at this life. Take it by the horns and make it right. Don’t get to your death bed and regret all of the opportunities that you will never get back. Don’t let the good girl slip away and don’t miss your children’s most vital years while chasing your own dreams. Set that example for generations, break those generational curses, and be a legend that lives on. The legend not only for your very own family, but for every soul you are blessed enough to interact with daily. God puts every person in your path for a reason. Leave a lasting impression forever imbedded in their soul, that they can say, “That man, he made a difference in not only my life, but in more lives than could ever be counted.” -Chelsea Spradlin

Click here for Perry’s excerpt on what a husband needs to know about his wife!