Encouraging your Man to Grow in Faith
Inside: Why should we encourage our husband’s spiritual leadership in the home? Every relationship is based on his faith and relationship with God.
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You need a present for someone special, but they are always so hard to buy. You’ve been thinking, pouring over magazines, and perusing the Amazon website and you still have no idea what to buy this person.
The giftless person is your husband.
I don’t know about you but I want to buy my husband gifts that he wouldn’t necessarily spend the money for himself. I’m looking for gifts to grow him and encourage him as my husband, father, and Christian man.
Husband’s Spiritual Leadership in the Home
The Bible clearly says the husband is to be the spiritual leader in the home in 1 Timothy 3. Our husbands are responsible to God for those under his care. Do you want to answer God about this someday?
Let that sink in for a moment…
As wives, our expectations of how our husband does this job might result in unloving actions. Maybe we try to push them into a relationship with God that isn’t there, criticize their leadership, or even expect that they should be at the same level of faith as us.
Do you drop hints or let unkind words in your mouth about this topic? Can I be honest? These words and hints move him more away from God than draw him near. Share on X
Perhaps we never witnessed a godly couple encouraging each other in marriage. How a wife treats her husband affects every role in their family, including his spiritual leadership in the home.
29 Don’t use foul or abusive language. Let everything you say be good and helpful, so that your words will be an encouragement to those who hear them.
Our Husband’s Faith is His Own
The truth is, your husband’s relationship with God is his relationship. We can’t force it or knock it. Share on XWhat we can do is bring our concerns to him as Esther did in the Bible. She arranged a banquet and got on her best clothes, loving gestures toward her husband, and then told her husband her concerns.
3 Queen Esther replied, “If I have found favor with the king, and if it pleases the king to grant my request, I ask that my life and the lives of my people will be spared. 4 For my people and I have been sold to those who would kill, slaughter, and annihilate us. If we had merely been sold as slaves, I could remain quiet, for that would be too trivial a matter to warrant disturbing the king” (Esther 7:3-4, NLT).
Did you notice, she didn’t nag or criticize but talked to her husband in love?
“Behind every great man, there’s a great woman.” ~Author Unknown
Encouraging our Husband’s Spiritual Leadership
How do we cheerlead our husband on in his spiritual growth?
- Wordlessly show Christ to him daily.
- Pray.
- Speak love to him and encourage him.
- Trust God to grow his relationship and faith.
- Offer patience to him in the growth process.
- Leave resources available to him to grow and learn more about Christ.
As our husband grows in faith, our marriage, parenting and all other relationships in his life get better. As you can see, becoming closer to Christ benefits everyone.
I’ve put together a gift guide to bless our husbands with resources to learn more about God and grow in faith. We can show our husbands our concerns by lovingly blessing them with one of these gifts!
[ess_grid alias=”Gift Guide for Growing in Faith”]
For my other gift guides: 10 Thoughtful Gift Ideas for Grieving Loved Ones
Such a great post! I do my best to encourage my husband and to let him know I love and respect him. Especially his love for God and his desire to lead all of us in deeper faith. Wild at Heart is an amazing book for both husbands and wives! Thank you for the gift ideas!
Melissa- thank you! Thanks for sharing what you do!
If husbands have mentally exhausting jobs, it’s hard for them to have the space in their lives to spend time in the Word. If we excitedly share what God has been teaching us, they can glean all the best juicy bits and contribute spiritually to us by adding or putting together the things we’ve said in a way that is surprising and leads us closer to Christ.
Susan- you are so wise! Thank you for sharing that!
I love this post Julie! I think it’s so important for the husbands to lead but at the same time I’ve learned to stop pushing cause it does not work! With prayer and encouragement I’ve noticed a difference in his actions as the family leader. Prayer is powerful!
Sheila- thank you for sharing your experience! So glad you found it helpful!
We as wives are called to be our husband’s spiritual cheerleaders! We are their helpmates and constant encouragers. I loved all of your tips, but number 3 really spoke to me. I strive each day to do this, but sometimes life gets in the way. Thanks for this reminder 🙂
Keisha- Yes, spiritual cheerleaders! Thank you and I’m glad it spoke to you!
I tell my husband he is the spiritual leader regularly and that I am blessed as a result of it.
Alice- What a great action!
As wives we want the best for our husbands. It’s a challenge not to “meddle” with his walk. I remember one time when I told my husband, “You’re a good man, ” the Lord whispered to my heart: “It’s a lot more difficult being a good man than being a good woman.”
Char- thank you for sharing! I’m going to ponder this thought!
I love this!! I loved how you showed us that Esther came to her husband in love, making herself beautiful and brought her concerns with respect. I have never thought about that. You have su h wisdom. I have been blessed
Shiree- thank you for the nice comments! It’s great to meet you too:)
Encouraging our husbands and cheering them on in all areas, is so important! as ladies, we often cheer one another, but the guys don’t really do that, so if we’re not encouraging him, it’s not going to be good. We can so easily forget this though!
Thanks for the reminder!
Aryn- I agree!
So true! As our husband’s faith grows so do all the other relationships in our family.
Kristi- I think faith is the key to relationships!
What great gift suggestions with the holidays approaching!I love the book recommendations and can’t wait to pick out one for my husbands stocking!
Rachel- Thank you! I hope you pick out a good one:)
Amen! So powerful. I loved the point where you said, “wordlessly show him Christ”. YES! Only when He flaunts through us, it rejuvabnates them.
Ann- Thank you, I think sometimes the wordless actions are more powerful!
I love your strong stand for this. It’s really easy to put these verses on the back burner in this cultural climate, but I find being my husband’s helper and being biblically submissive to be very encouraging and full of joy. I wrote about it here: http://vanessajencks.com/2017/10/wifely-submission-can-joy/
Vanessa- Thank you for sharing your post! I’m going to check it out!
Kathleen- The best gift you can give your husband is to pray for him and wordlessly show him Christ!
Great gift ideas here, Julie. I loved the book Wild at Heart. Your suggestions are good too. I also think it can be easy for women to “judge” their husbands as “less spiritual” simply because they are less expressive about it, or live out faith differently…I’ve noticed respect and affirmation encourage my husband so much. 🙂
Betsy- That’s a great insight into the differences between men and women! Thank you!
I find myself trying to purchase my husband gifts that challenge him to be the person that that item represents; or, I buy him gifts that I know encourage him in an area he is already vocal about working on.