A Husband’s Prayer

Dear Lord,

Help me to be the kind of husband you want me to be.

Help me not to take my role as husband lightly or take my wife’s love for granted.

Help me to be a good listener, giving my wife my full attention so that I will be well aware of her concerns, aspirations, and needs.

Help me to pay attention to the advice my wife gives me when she brings things to my attention that I may be doing wrong or that I could be doing better.

Help me to be more anxious to please my wife than to have my own way.

Help me to be aware of the things that I do that upset my dear wife – and enable me not to keep doing them – so that I will not be causing unnecessary problems in our relationship.

Help me to remember that I am commanded to love my wife as Christ loved the Church and gave His life for it and please help me to better understand what that means to me as a husband.

Help me to treat my wife better than when we were first met and remind me of the importance of spending quality time alone with her and of doing things to remind her of how special she is to me.

Help me not to jump to conclusions about my wife’s motives and enable me to think the best of her at all times.

Help me to apologize and set things straight when I complain, falsely accuse, act selfishly, or say unkind or provoking words.

Help me to go out of my way to complement her and to encourage her.

Help me to be a proper example of what a loving, considerate, caring, and self-sacrificing husband should be.

Help me to realize that it is my job to be an example of maturity and not an example of a disrespectful wisecracking school boy.

Help me to be joyful in spite of my circumstances and help me to avoid whining and complaining when things do not go my way.

Help me to admit my faults, to apologize when I am wrong, and to be anxious to heal wounds that I may have caused in my relationship to my wife.

Help me to realize that is far better to get my wife to do things I want her to do because she loves me and not because I threaten her or yell at her.

Help me to never forget that You gave me my wife to be a helpmate, confidant and very best friend and may I never think of her as an adversary or a hindrance.

Help me to show my children how much I respect and love their mother by my actions and by the words out of my mouth.

Help me not to be afraid to be affectionate and loving towards my wife in front of my children so that they will know how to be good spouses when they grow up.

Help me to properly discipline my children so they are not a burden or a grief to my wife.

Help me to show my children that my wife is truly my very best friend and a highly trusted partner in the ministry of our family. 

Make me the kind of husband who my wife will never regret having married and even more than that, make me the kind of husband who is a joy for my wife to be around and who my wife will be proud to call her husband, a man who honors her and who honors Christ.

Amen.

Praying the above prayer is a lot easier than actually taking it to heart. Praying it is a good start but it takes the power of God to be the kind of selfless and self-sacrificing husband that glorifies God and gives a wife the comfort, closeness and security she desires from her husband.   Husbands really need to love their wives as Christ loved the church and gave Himself for it.  This means husbands are to love their wives even when their wives do not act lovingly towards their husbands.  True Christian love – Christ-like love – is to be based on love for God and what He has done for sinners like us by redeeming us from the just eternal punishment due to us for our sins.  This kind of love is not to be based on the behavior or performance of our spouse who has the same sinful tendencies as we have and who has the same need for grace and mercy that we have need of.  So, if we can only remember to look at our spouse through the eyes of mercy and grace that God has for us whom He as redeemed by His blood, we will be on the right track when it comes to relating to our spouse in any situation, no matter how hard it may be for us to return love when hurtful words come our way.

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