Be a Man

A few years ago, some of my male friends joined a facebook event for a be a man day in an effort to combat the media's portrayals of manhood - machismo or uselessness. Basically, this be a man day was a call for guys to be good, decent, hardworking people and for everybody to realize that is what being a man is about.

Last week I read from 2 Nephi 1 in my seminary scriptures. Verses 21 through 27 have markings placed as per my teacher's instructions - in the margin, Lehi's 10 traits of becoming a man, then the numerals 1 through 10 in the places he mentions said traits. The list
1. Be men (not sure why that's one of the items)
2. Be determined in one mind and one heart, united in all things
3. Awake
4. Come forth out of obscurity
5. Rebel no more
6. Keep the commandments
7. Be an instrument in the hands of God
8. Seek not for power or authority
9. Have the power of the word of God
10. Have the Spirit of the Lord in you

As a side note, I believe this was the same lesson where we split up into boys and girls and made lists - the girls made a list of the top 10 things we wanted in a man and the boys listed 10 things they thought the girls would want in a man. The lists actually matched up pretty well - the order was a bit off, but most of the items were represented on both lists. We girls cheated a bit, though - we couldn't completely agree on what belonged on the list so ended up with a tie in one spot, giving us 11 items. I don't remember many specific items on either list, although I could probably make a fairly good guess at what went on them. What I do remember is that one of the tie items on the girls' list was a Y chromosome. The boys listed testosterone. Those were the only physical attributes. Both lists focused mainly on character.