All you can eat meat. That is what a Brazilian cookout is all about. There were a little over 20 men present for the men's Christmas party. The women had theirs about a week before ours. They decorated the auditorium, gave out presents to one another and had a nice meal. That is all nice and good but we men like things a little different. We had just a few vegetables because only one person remembered to bring them. We had some bread because we sent someone to buy bread after realizing we didn't have any. All that is o.k. and fine because we had meat, charcoal and grills. There were no presents, no decorations, only meat. What a day! Everyone went home satisfied.
Our boys, who are now teenagers, stood around the meat table like vultures waiting for another dead body to drop, only it was cooked. We finally had to tell them that one round was ours and the next theirs. In the not too distant past, they would eat two or three rounds and then go off to play. When we saw that things had changed, and they were not leaving we had to set some guidelines for these newbies to the man's world.
In the end, it all worked out great, and everyone cheered as others had to leave or got a call from the wife, asking "When are you coming home?" That is what a men's Christmas cookout is all about. Go home, my brother, thank you for sharing your part. It was all in good fun. And besides the meat, we did have a devo.
I wonder if that is why God told us men and husbands to "Love your wife as you love yourself" (Ephesians 5:33) because we do love ourselves well.
