My first challenge this week (Day Fifteen) was about encouraging our husbands in their spiritual growth. I’ve been blessed in the last 4 years to be on a “spiritual growth spurt” as I liked to call it, right alongside my husband. It seems like the Lord has been stretching us and growing us in such major ways over these last four years. If four years ago you told me I’d be a stay-at-home Mom of 3 boys with Baby #4 on the way, contently enjoying the domestic work of being a housewife, helping to lead a ladies bible study, ministering to other moms and wives through ministry work, or writing a blog on Christian marriage…I’d never have believed you. And the transformation of my husband has been no less amazing over these last 4 years.
Every question posed by the challenge I could confidently answer “yes”…
Can you identify an area of spiritual strength in your husband? Yes. He constantly prays for God’s will and wisdom. He seems to be able to surrender to God’s will much easier than me, who tends to think I’ve got things all worked out.
Does he pray or read his bible regularly? Yes. He’s always been natually disciplined and it shows in his dedication to time in God’s Word.
Does he like to read about or discuss spiritual matters? Does he go to church with you? Is he a spiritual leader? Yes. We are in nearly continuous discussions on spiritual matters, because everything is a spiritual matter to us…our marriage, our finances, raising our families, making sense of the world around us and finding our place in it. And, Dave is right there leading the way for us.
I thank God for David’s commitment to follow Him and for his personal spiritual growth that leads our entire family to a deepening relationship with our Savior. We’ve been through some hard times, and when old fears begin to creep in, my biggest source of security is this commitment by my husband to seek God’s will in his life.
I know this is not the state of many marriages. I’ve prayed alongside wives whose deepest desire is to see their husband’s hearts turn to Christ or yearn for a deeper spiritual life the way they do.
I’ve prayed that prayer before myself. Prior to this “growth spurt”, our marriage was in crisis. When I finally surrendered to God and stopped trying to “fix” things myself, God used my example to draw my husband back…to Him and to me.
And from that experience, I’ll leave these Words for those of you out there that want to encourage your husband’s spiritual growth…
“Wives, in the same way submit yourselves to your own husbands so that, if any of them do not believe the word, they may be won over without words by the behavior of their wives, when they see the purity and reverence of your lives.” 1 Peter 3:1-2 (NIV)
Much of our encouragement to our husbands comes with words by verbalized appreciation. Here we are told to submit to our husband and focus on our own spiritual walk. It is not our words that will work for the Lord, but our ways.
© 2011 – 2023, Danielle Peters. All rights reserved. Love it? Please share, pin, tweet or email but do not use my work without permission.
Leave a Reply