Journeymen of Faith

Throughout most of my life, my dad was a journeyman toolmaker. I didn't understand what this meant fully until he died. As a journeyman, he was responsible to take apprentice tool and die makers under his wing and help them learn the craft of tool making. At my dad's funeral, among those who came were a handful of his former apprentice toolmakers. Tool and die makers are often a tough lot. Toolmakers are not highly polished, and tend to be a bit rough around the edges. What struck me however was the comment one of them wrote on a memory card provided for those who attended the visitation. On his card he simply wrote these words: "Fred didn't just teach me to be a good toolmaker, he taught me to be a good man." The truth of the matter is that for any man to become the man God envisions him to be, it will take more than a stack of books on men's issues and a Bible. Shaping a man takes another man. Proverbs 27:17 states, "As iron sharpens iron, so one man sharpens another." Whose life are you shaping today? How will a man's future and the future of his family be eternally changed because of your influence in his life?