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Specifically, as fathers and husbands there are five key things that we can do to strengthen or divorce-proof our marriages.
1. Learn to be willing to go the distance in our marriage – An Everlasting Love.
As Christ loved the church, so we should love our wife.
This seems like an easy statement at first—until we start to unwrap it. How did Christ love the church? Well, the first way is that He loved it enough to die for it.
Wow, you say. That’s pretty strong love. Christ said, before He died, that no man has greater love than that of laying down his life for his friends1—then he went and proved it.
Men, are we ready to die for our wife? Would we willingly take her place if that is what she faced? That is a very difficult, but very important question. If we’re honest with ourselves, we realize just how tall an order this is. When we place this measuring stick up against ourselves, we find that we fall far from that goal!
But it gets better. Jesus loves us even when we wrong Him. Remember Hosea and Gomer? God told Hosea to go and buy back his wife when she left him and became a harlot. God wanted to show His style of love to the world through Hosea.
Jesus not only died for us, but He did it when we were His enemies2. It wasn’t that He died for people showing Him their love—even His disciples turned their backs on Him as he was taken away by the leaders of the day.
Men, do you love your wife even when she nags you? Do you love her when she hurts you? Do you love her when it’s difficult—when it takes energy?
- John 15:13 [↩]
- Romans 5:8 [↩]
