Chivalry: Old News or Eternal Truth?

I love those old fairy tales. You know, the ones where the valiant knight saves the princess? The ones where chivalry and honor are boldly demonstrated and called for? Those ones.

It always makes me sad when I’m out shopping and I don’t see men opening doors for women anymore, or helping them carry the shopping bags. Or even when I look at relationships where either the man is mistreating his girl, or the girl won’t let her guy be a man.

Don’t you see something wrong with this picture? How far society has strayed from the knights and ladies of old? Even simple etiquette is not as valued today as it once was.
Women were graceful.
Men were noble.
Women weren’t feministic.
Men were … well … men.
And I’m not saying mankind was perfect then (certainly not!). But they at least valued good character.

Hilary Clinton promised to further women’s rights. Men are supposed to kick back and watch as women take charge of the world.

Uh, what?

True Manhood

True manhood does not compromise a woman’s purity, but heroically protects it. True manhood doesn't force a girl to give away the greatest treasure she has. How many times do we see in our culture the exact opposite of this?

Knights and princes protected women in those days … not hurt them.

Did you know that one out of every three women will be abused at some point in her life? And that about 4,000 women die each year due to domestic violence? On average, more than three women are murdered by their husbands or partners in this country every day. Every day. What does that say about our country?

Also, you see in this generation how our young men aren’t getting up off the couch to work. To be honest, they’re lazy. You don’t see very many of them these days rising against the norm of video-gaming and actually doing hard things. Our young men have the potential to conquer some amazing — maybe even crazy — adventures God has in store for them, but they are willing to just sit back and watch the ladies do the work.

I love this quote by Raising Real Men by Hal and Melonie Young, “Manliness is much more than brute force, it’s a heart attitude of confidence and boldness to accomplish the mission given by God.”

And also, all those knights had a code that they followed, that should still be applied today, called the “code of chivalry”. If you’ve read books like The Song of Roland or Sir Gawain and the Green Knight, you know what I’m talking about.

◾To fear God and maintain His Church
◾To serve the liege lord in valour and faith
◾To protect the weak and defenseless
◾To give succour to widows and orphans
◾To refrain from the wanton giving of offense
◾To live by honour and for glory
◾To despise pecuniary reward
◾To fight for the welfare of all
◾To obey those placed in authority
◾To guard the honour of fellow knights
◾To eschew unfairness, meanness and deceit
◾To keep faith
◾At all times to speak the truth
◾To persevere to the end in any enterprise begun
◾To respect the honour of women
◾Never to refuse a challenge from an equal
◾Never to turn the back upon a foe

This is what a true knight was to follow. And shouldn’t this be what Christian men should follow?

True Womanhood

It’s amazing how the femininity of the women of old has been lost amongst the petitions for women’s rights, and articles about women being the “better” gender, and so on. The treasure of a woman's purity has been traded in for the lie that says that if they give away the treasure, they will get much more.

Uh, no. Losing that treasure wont make you more powerful, more in control of your life, or anything except heartache. You are worth more than that.

Ladies, what happened? Why do you act offended when a guy offers to open the door for you, or help you carry that heavy load of books? That’s what they’re supposed to do. By not letting them show you respect and honor, you’re not letting them be men. I think that if more young women rose and acted like ladies, more young men would stand up and act like men.

Remember the days when women would wear dresses? Now, I am not saying that women should wear skirts and dresses and not wear pants. My point is: what happened to dressing ourselves so we respect others around us, and carrying ourselves with grace?

It seems like, now, we dress to show as much skin as we can. Yes, it will give us attention. But, really, is that the kind of attention we want? Modesty and grace are beautiful, and I’m sure most (respectable) guys would agree. And you don't want the disrespectable guys, you want someone who will treasure you.

You don't really want the dark and dangerous guy who takes your breath away. You want a knight. Someone who will honour you, and love you like you deserve, with no other ladies in the mix.


In conclusion, I find myself looking back to the knights and princesses and nobles and ladies, and longing to see the chivalry and grace abound in our culture once again.

But I can’t do that all by myself.

Will you join me and take a stand, rise up against the low expectations, the jeering from friends, the lack of Christian morals in our country, and grow into true men and true women?

Chivalry: Old News or Eternal Truth?

I got the code of chivalry from
http://www.lordsandladies.org/knights-code-of-chivalry.htm