5. Be a Provider
The husband should bear the primary responsibility for the financial needs of the home.
In fact, 1 Timothy 5:8 says if a man fails to provide for his household, he is worse than a pagan.
That’s not the kind of reputation I want to have in the community. Part of the root meaning for
the word provider means “to look ahead.”
A provider is one who anticipates and does the strategic planning for the household. He thinks
about the goals. Not just the financial goals, but the spiritual goals and emotional goals.
In a sense, he is chief executive officer of the corporation. It’s his responsibility to set the direction.
And many times his wife is the chief operating officer. The two of them need to unify their
direction for the good of the family.
6. Love Her Biblically and Extravagantly
To love her biblically, we need to ask, “What is God’s love for us like?” The essence of His love for
us is reflected in His commitment to us and His sacrifice for us. That’s what our love for our wife
needs to look like too.
For me, it often means placing her needs ahead of my own. And it means that I will still sacrifice for
her even when we disagree. She must be my priority. Remember the little line in the marriage vow,
“Forsaking all others, until death do us part”?
That means your relationship with your wife is more important than any other relationship —
friends, your boss or even your children. Put simply, after our love for God, we must love our wives
more than anything on earth. That is the essence of the marriage relationship.
D.L. Moody summed it up best: “If I want to find out whether a man was a Christian, I wouldn’t go
to a minister; I’d go and ask his wife.
“If a man doesn’t treat his wife right, I don’t want to hear him talk about Christianity. What is the
use of talking about salvation for the next life if he has no salvation for this life?”
This past May, Mary Ann and I celebrated our 25th wedding anniversary in Maui, Hawaii. The
surroundings were incredible, but really we were just happy to be together.
Over dinner that night, we could both say that in spite of any challenges that have come our way,
we wouldn’t change the outcome of our shared 25 years.
That’s because God has used our relationship with each other more than anything else to make us
more like Christ. And ultimately, that is His purpose for marriage.
by Bob Lepine with Chris Lawrence
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