‘The second is equally important: ‘Love your neighbor as yourself.’ No other commandment is greater than these.”’ Mark 12:31(NLT)
‘That’s why I work and struggle so hard, depending on Christ’s mighty power that works within me.’ Colossians 1:29(NLT)
‘Love is patient and kind. Love is not jealous or boastful or proud or rude. It does not demand its own way. It is not irritable, and it keeps no record of being wronged. It does not rejoice about injustice but rejoices whenever the truth wins out. Love never gives up, never loses faith, is always hopeful, and endures through every circumstance. Prophecy and speaking in unknown languages and special knowledge will become useless. But love will last forever! ‘ 1 Corinthians 13:4-8(NLT)
What makes a man godly? How does he demonstrate his love for God? By fulfilling the second commandment: “Love your neighbor as yourself” (Mark 12:31). Who are your closest neighbors? Your wife and your kids.
What’s the first thing a husband and father does to demonstrate love for them?
He stays.
Godly men don’t run off. They don’t run away. Author John Lynch defines love as “meeting needs.” Your wife’s number one need is security. That starts with you being committed. Staying. Regardless, you work it out.
Too many men are moving away instead of staying. We pursue selfish acts and ambitions that move us away from the good things God intends for us.
Love stays. Elder-type men stick with their Lord, the wife of their youth, their kids, their families, and the church. No matter what.
I’ll never forget one of the men I mentored telling about how his dad would get up early to read his Bible and pray. He’d get down and kneel on the couch, and when the son got up later in the morning, he’d see the imprint of his dad’s face in the couch. He knew his dad had been there before dawn, praying for him . . . he could see his face print.
Another mentee had quite a different experience. His memory is his dad announcing he didn’t love his mom anymore and that he was moving out. He moved in with his girlfriend and deserted his family. Every single day, this thirty-something year old man deals with the damage his dad did to him when he decided not to stay.
If you’re thinking about leaving, don’t. Stay. If you’re there in body but not in spirit, stay . . . turn your heart to your family and get yourself together where it matters most. People are watching. Your kids are watching. Your grandchildren are (or will be) watching. People inside and outside the faith are watching.
Question: Will you decide, I mean really decide, to stay? And then will you tell (or remind) your wife that you’re not going anywhere . . . not now, not ever?
from Radical Wisdom: A 7-Day Journey For Husbands by Regi Campbell