And, ye fathers, provoke not your children to wrath: but bring them up in the nurture and admonition of the Lord. (Ephesians 6:4)Children can be quite a challenge to the marriage relationship.
A wise wife will support her husband's leadership in the home as much as possible, and will praise him for his fathering skills.
Negativity makes a man feel like a failure, and may make him to want to give up on participating and building his leadership areas.
Does your husband discipline your children wisely? Does he show them love and encourage them? Does he take an interest in their activities and dreams? Does he spend time with them? Does he take part in developing their character? Praise him for these important life skills!
If you don't have children, is your husband positive and encouraging around other people's children? Let him know that you have noticed.
If your husband does not experience positive relationships with children, you will need to figure out why. Perhaps he had negative experiences as a child with his own parents, and needs to learn how to respond. Perhaps you can lovingly and patiently show him how to parent, without telling him what to do, while still giving him room to maintain his authority in the home.
While praying for your husband today, pray for a soothing tongue for him. Pray that your husband will have a balanced life, that he will balance work and play. Pray that he will fear God, while gaining favor with people he knows at work and church.
A wholesome tongue is a tree of life: but perverseness therein is a breach in the spirit.
(Proverbs 15:4)
And Jesus increased in wisdom and stature, and in favour with God and man.
(Luke 2:52)
Good understanding giveth favour: but the way of transgressors is hard.
(Proverbs 13:15)
Whether your husband already has a strong root in doing these things, or is an unsaved sinner running from God, prayers seeking these things with selfless humility will uplift and encourage him to become or continue to be a spiritual leader and guardian of the home as God has designed him to be!
Just a reminder about this 30 Days of Covering Our Husbands in Prayer:
Each day for 30 consecutive days, I will be posting a husband related topic, devotion, motivator, and/or encouragement here on my blog. Please feel free to access this prayer challenge any time you feel ready to start, or even to re-do the challenge to enforce the strength of the Lord in your marriage. You can click here for a printable calendar to view each day when going to prayer for your husband. Each day provides specific biblical prayer topics with bible verse references that seek God to touch the lives of our husbands.
In addition to specific prayer each day, there is a daily two-part challenge for you that will build up your husband through your own spoken (and unspoken) words:
Feel free to join me at any time in this prayer venture over your husband. You can always refer to my blog archives (the beginning post is May 24, 2012) if you're starting day one while my posts are further ahead in the challenge. If you have a blog, you're welcome to take the "30 Days of Covering Our Husbands in Prayer" graphic above and link it back to this topic's starting post (here), to encourage others to meet the Lord in prayer over their husbands too. If you decide to make this a goal for the next month in your life, whether you have a blog of your own or not, please comment or send me a message, I would be honored to pray for you by name as you seek God through the journey... regardless of when you begin it!
See you tomorrow for Day Twenty-Five!
May your marriage be blessed!
Prayer studies are adapted from ©Revive Our Hearts and ©Diving Deeper Ministries.
Used with permission.
