WildLife Bible Plan Day 1: Start Really Living

Monday Night Men’s Circle

Opening Moments

“So, here we are again, ready for the real adventure. We’re seven normal guys…making time to help each other along the way because we’re done trying to make it through life. We’re ready to start really living.”
With that simple rally-cry, the group settled in—no songs or formal prayers, just honest expectancy.

Testimonies

Jason

• Childhood setting: second grade, suddenly “twice the size as everyone else.” Parents tried nutritionists and salads in place of PB&J.
• Core wound: “I started having this kind of feeling of there’s something wrong with me…Jason wasn’t enough.”
• Coping strategy: jumped onto a “performance treadmill”—class president, student-body president, speech meets, straight A’s.
• Cost: “Man, it’s tiring…It’ll wear you out.”
• Emotions: exhaustion, self-doubt, longing to be accepted apart from achievements.

Second Speaker

• Body image opposite: “I was the skinny guy…had an identical twin, so it was double the trouble.”
• Family fracture: parents’ divorce in seventh grade. “I kinda begin to own the responsibility for that—like it was my fault.”
• Ongoing fallout: Dad now on marriage #4, Mom on #3; moved through nine schools before graduation.
• Survival mode: constantly making new friends, impressing people, chasing worth “through work and success.”
• Shared insight: “As men…we think we’re abnormal in some way and have to make up the gap.”

Holy-Spirit Highlights

• A common lie: “I’m not enough,” whether overweight or underweight, abandoned or over-praised.
• Performance vs. identity: both stories exposed the exhausting treadmill of proving oneself.
• Father-wound thread: divorce and serial marriages shaping a hunger for stability and validation.
• Brotherhood as remedy: seven men choosing vulnerability instead of isolation.

Prayer Points & Next Steps

• Freedom from the need to perform or impress; rest in being God’s beloved sons.
• Healing for childhood wounds tied to body image and broken homes.
• Stability and redemption in each man’s family line—especially for dads on multiple marriages.
• Commitment to keep showing up, listening, and speaking truth over one another in this circle.