A priest at a wedding ceremony captured this piece of advice to the groom. He gave it as the condition to which the groom must fulfill as a husband.
All men in the house, if you want to enjoy your marriage and enjoy maximally the ministry of your wife as your help mate follow these advice.
1. Be the spiritual leader
Your wife needs you to be a spiritual leader in the marriage. Be someone she can look up to in times of challenges, and crisis and someone who gives spiritual guidance.
2. Affirmation and Appreciation
Your wife continually needs rich doses of affirmations and appreciation. Affirm her. Let your words strengthen her. Don’t discourage her. Give her wings to fly. Let your wife become better being married to you. Appreciate her efforts. To appreciate, you must first of all acknowledge her contributions. Don’t be stingy with your affirmations and appreciation. Let your wife be able to say, I married a good man who truly celebrates me.
The first lady in your life needs lots of romance. She will never outgrow little romantic gestures like buying her little meaningful gifts. Being courteous to her. Treating her with respect like listening to her when she speaks. It simply means treating her every way you can as your queen. If you will not talk harshly or rudely to a queen, then don’t do that to her.
3. Intimate Communication
The woman God has given to you needs intimate communication. Let her know how human you are. Don’t paint the picture of a superhuman to her. Let her know she is needed and valuable. Open up your fears to her. Ask her sincerely for her prayers. Let her communicate freely and honestly without the fear of being judged or criticized.
4. She needs you to betransparent
Some husbands keep important information from their wives. They feel their wives won’t be able to handle such information. On the contrary, your wife is made to handle the truth and do something about it. She may be emotional about it, but once she’s done she looks for ways to handle it.
So be open and very transparent with your wife. When you need her comfort, her attention let her know, don’t throw tantrums. Talk, don’t sulk.
5. She Needs Home Support
Make sure she and her children are well catered for. Don’t let her feel her demands are too much. It is your responsibility to fix every need in the house. She assists when she can. Please don’t see it as a right to demand, but be grateful for every support she renders. Her comfort is your responsibility. Ask her how you can make her more comfortable. Don’t be unconcerned about her struggles.
7. She Needs Someone Who IsCommitted to the Family
Family commitment is a very important need for your wife. She must know that after God she comes next. Put the needs of the children and hers as top priority. Let every other person come only after your wife and children. Make sure you verbalize your commitment to your wife and your children.
Make sure your wife and children flourish and thrive under your watch. Build up courage and strength in your wife, who will be your support system. Invest in whatever may be her shortcoming. Build strength consciously into your children, they are the ones that matter most because they bear your name and are like arrows shot into the future. Take time to explain things to them. Let them be free to ask you questions and set up conversations with them. Be transparent with them, let them know where you stand.
Do all these and you will have built a strong support system for yourself spiritually, emotionally, financially, socially, and otherwise.
Yesterday I spoke about transitioning from a Girl to a lady, to a wife, and a mother. We see how it’s of necessity we grow and develop at each stage so we can mature at each level and do as it is required of us.
Today we will be looking at the male version and how we are to develop at every stage of our lives.
You are a male by birth but we become a man by choice. You become a man by taking some deliberate steps or actions
John 9:21 NKJV but by what means he now sees we do not know, or who opened his eyes we do not know. He is of age; ask him. He will speak for himself.
Being a man describes one who can speak for himself. Most guys have identity crises. They can’t speak up for what they believe. Your ‘manhood’ starts when you can stand up for a godly course.
You grow from being a boy to becoming a man, mature emotionally, mentally, financially spiritually.
Until you are a mature man you are not qualified to be a husband or to be married.
There are so many married boys. It’s not your age that makes you a man.
Being a husband is a responsibility. Husband is from the word ‘husbandry’ which means ‘the care, cultivation, and breeding of crops and animals’.
It also means ‘management and conservation of resources’. A husband must be equipped to bind his home together. He should be able to manage the human resources of his wife and children. He cultivates and brings out the best in his wife and children.
When we have immature men becoming husbands, we have all sorts of marital problems. We have unfaithful men. Men who can’t be committed to their wives or their children.
They have not learned how to be committed to God. They can be selfish, don’t know how to manage their emotions, and don’t know. how to be vulnerable, sincere, and transparent with their wives.
A good. husband is an effective father, the source of life. Many boys are becoming fathers. What a tragedy of destiny. It is only boys that allow their erection to determine their direction.
Let every man and the ladies that love them and love the next generation, take up the responsibility of getting matured. Enough of half-baked men causing crisis in marriages.
Let them become the proper servant leaders, God ordained them to be. Men who truly love their wives like Christ love the church and gave Himself for her.
Every female gender starts as a girl. As a girl you are all pretty, flawless, innocent, saintly, naive, and all shades of sweetness. You see a young girl and you want to cuddle her.
I can bet you, girls are made for cuddles and kisses.
Every girl born is like a clean slate. To become a lady, you need to be informed. As your body transforms, other aspects of your life also need to be transformed. You are not just all ‘body’. You are a container with content.
The problem however is that failure to fully and properly transform from one stage of development to another affects the proper growth in the other stage.
A girl that doesn’t fully develop cannot become a lady in the right sense of the word.
A lady is one equipped with all the right knowledge and has developed mental capacity in all necessary areas. Financial, emotional (she is mature and has emotional intelligence), psychological, spiritual, mental, etc.
She has matured from being just a girl. She is not just concerned about her body and her looks.
From being a lady, the proper order is to move from being a lady to being a wife.
Marriage is not what makes a lady a wife. You become a wife before you are married
Proverbs 18:22 NKJV He who finds a wife finds a good thing, And obtains favor from the Lord.
The man obtains favor from the Lord because the Lord has taken time to work on the lady turning her into a wife
A wife is emotionally mature, selfless, and ready to submit to the right order of things as constituted by God. She is submitted to her husband. She has learned that to win the heart of your husband takes more than your looks or your body, it takes wisdom.
When you are fully developed as a wife, you are qualified to be a mother indeed. You don’t become a mother by just giving birth to a baby. You are a mother because you can pass the same godly principles to the next generation and nurture godly seeds.
There is so much crisis in society because girls are not becoming ladies and ladies are not maturing to become wives and mothers.
What we have are ladies becoming or performing wifely roles and being mothers. Little wonder about the chaos in marriages.
May we reverse the order and be on course to be godly women in Jesus’ name!
This piece of advice will work for all relationships at whatever level. This is not to condone character flaws but it is an effective way of managing our differences.
For Singles, after we are sure this is the person God wants us to marry, a period of courtship begins. We are in love, yes, but we begin to see a lot of things we don’t like in our fiance.
If we focus on these differences we will spend most of our time quarreling and trying to sort out these differences.
We will think by much talk, which I call sermonizing, change will be effected. Nagging or sermonizing is us trying to sort out our differences by insisting on our terms.
I am not suggesting that we should keep quiet on major differences but I show us a better way.
When you see things your partner does that hurt you, rather than nag, you take it to God in prayer.
That sounds strange, but it is the way to go. By doing this, you are solving some other major issues in the future.
For us couples, not complaining is even a much better option. Knowing and accepting your spouse as a gift to you from God is fundamental.
God has brought you and your spouse together to fulfill a purpose. God expects you to take matters to Him in prayers. You are meant to pray all the time for your spouse. God knows that he/she is not perfect. God does give us raw materials to work on and the extend we work at them, the better we will enjoy them.
He/ she should be your project.
Your spouse’s weaknesses should be your prayer point. Your wife talks harshly, don’t tell her she will go to hell if she continues like that. Your husband drinks, win him over, not by your many talks, complaining, or sermonizing but by your prayers. Let’s learn to take them to the foot of the cross.
Does that mean I should close my eyes to misconduct? I didn’t say that. I only said to change our tactics and pray rather than complain.
With us developing this habit, God will have a better place in our lives. We will become better by getting closer to God and then the power of God will transform our spouse.
The choice is ours. Go the way of complaining and have the devil get an inroad into your marriage and relationship thereby causing more havoc or do it God’s way.
Remember, when you notice a weakness in your spouse, don’t complain turn it to prayer points before God and the result will amaze you. This is what God told me.
Do you know God hates complaining?
Check this out.
I Corinthians 10:8 – 10 NKJV [8] Nor let us commit sexual immorality, as some of them did, and in one day twenty-three thousand fell; [9] nor let us tempt Christ, as some of them also tempted, and were destroyed by serpents; [10] nor complain, as some of them also complained, and were destroyed by the destroyer.
In relationships, there will be instances where your significant other inadvertently inflicts hurt upon you. It’s not a deliberate act, but rather a consequence of human nature – we are, after all, only human.
As spiritual beings residing on this side, the sting of these hurts often cuts deep due to the profound trust, love, and emotional bonds involved.
The root of these hurts may often be traced back to temperamental differences, as individuals naturally attract those with opposing temperaments. Picture the calm and easy-going drawn to the vivacious Sanguine, or the goal-oriented Choleric captivated by the carefree Sanguine or the relaxed Phlegmatic.
While these differences are complementary, they can also become sources of conflict, generating deep hurts, offenses, bitterness, and an unforgiving spirit.
Unchecked hurts evolve into lasting offenses, fostering bitterness and an unforgiving spirit. It’s essential to recognize that harboring unforgiveness obstructs the flow of blessings into one’s life.
The Christian journey expressly forbids harboring an unforgiving attitude. Jesus, our ultimate example, demonstrated the divine nature of forgiveness even amid brutal treatment during his crucifixion.
Jesus forgave, and through His forgiveness, resurrection power was unleashed, bringing Him back from the dead. Now, the glorified Jesus sits in majesty at the right hand of God.
In line with Christian teachings, holding onto offense or unforgiveness contradicts the principles of faith. As emphasized in Mark 11:25 (KJV), forgiveness is an integral part of a successful life.
Mar 11:25 (KJV) And when ye stand praying, forgive, if ye have ought against any: that your Father also which is in heaven may forgive you your trespasses.
Offense, hurts, and bitterness serve as impediments to blessings; therefore, it is paramount to sidestep them in your relationships.
Release the grip of unforgiveness; forgive your ex-partner and release them from the depths of your heart. The subsequent choices your ex makes, including their marital decisions, are inconsequential. Letting go is the key, to allowing God to orchestrate His plan in your life.
May God grant you heightened understanding as you navigate the complex terrain of relationships.