What does it cost to be a Mason? What does it cost our wives and family when we go to the Lodge?  For many of us ___day (fill in the blank) is Lodge day.  For me, that day is usually Thursday.  Lately it is every day except Wednesday and Sunday.  My wife knows that on Thursday I will be at the Lodge.  This means that on Thursday night we won’t be going out to eat.  We won’t be going to a movie or watching a television show together.  Most lodge nights she is asleep by the time I get home.

For me, Thursday is a day I use to focus on being a better man.  Just as Sunday is a day we use to worship our Lord, Thursday is a day I spend with my Brothers.  These men are all at different stages of maturity themselves.  In the Master Mason Degree, we describe the three principles stages of human life: youth, manhood, and age. 

The new member, who is already supposed to be a good man, is at the very early stage of enlightenment.  He should be eager to learn and knows that he is not the best person he can be, but he is trying.  Our fraternity, through fellowship with better men and the teachings of our Masonic Ritual, take these men and, like a lump of clay, slowly begin to mold them and help them to grow emotionally and spiritually. 

The men who have been part of our fraternity for five to twenty-five years are the workhorses of our Lodges.  We are the men that are taking the lessons we have been taught and using them to improve our communities and “apply our knowledge for the discharge of our respective duties to God, or neighbor and ourselves.”  We still have a long way to go.  However, we are a long way from where we started. 

The thirty year plus members are the men we are all looking up to.  These men have put in the time to smooth the sides and square the edges of their ashlar.  These men, though experience and hard work, have become the men we strive to be.  Even though they may not be in a “leadership position”, they are our leaders.  When they speak, we listen. 

No matter what stage a man is in his Masonic journey, he is needed at his Lodge.  At the beginning of this I asked what it cost our families for us to be at the Lodge.  What do they get?  They get a man that knows he is a long way from perfect, but he is trying.  They get a better husband, a better father, and I believe a better Christian. 

Our families should know that because we are Masons, they can call on all of us for help.  They should know that if we as husbands are not acting the way we should, they have the Lodge to go to for help.  They should know that if they are out of town and need help, the Brothers of the local Lodge are there to help.  When a man becomes a Mason, he gains thousands of new brothers, but so does his family. 

Jason Jefcoat, Grand Master
Grand Lodge of Mississippi