How to love your family

How should we love others? Part 1

1. Spouses:

(Ephesians 5:21-33)

Wife:

• Be his helper: In Genesis 2:18 God tells us that women are the helper of their husbands. We were created with that inside of us. To be helpers to many but most importantly our husbands. It is interesting to note that the Hebrew meaning of the word helper in this passage is found hereafter in the Bible to refer only to God as He helps us. The fact that this same word is applied to a wife signifies that we women have been given tremendous power for good in our husbands’ lives. God has designed wives to help their husbands become all that God intends for them to be.
• Respect him: When you respect your husband you reverence him, notice him, regard him, honor him, prefer him, and esteem him.
• Submit to his leadership: These Scriptures make it clear that a wife should submit voluntarily to her husband’s sensitive and loving leadership. Therefore, as I voluntarily submit to my husband, I am completing him. I am helping him fulfill his responsibilities, and I am helping him become the man, the husband, and the leader God intended him to be.

Husband:

• Love your wife unconditionally. The word says that husbands ought to love their wives the way Christ loves the church. Jesus loves His bride with an agape kind of love; which means unconditional.
• Lead your household through the word of God. It says he needs to sanctify his wife with the word of God. Meaning he needs to speak the word of God over his wife. The husband needs to speak life into his wife. Remind her who she is in Christ.
• Protect her. Jesus protects His bride(church). He goes before us and fights for us. Husband needs to be this way with their beloved wives. To the point where he would be willing to die for his wife the way Christ did. This means taking the responsibility to shield your wives from sin and its temptations, accusations, attacks, unnecessary burdens, hurtful expectations, and assumptions. Warding off or rebuking people who take advantage of her. It also means no verbal, emotional, or physical abuse. It means no pornography or sexual exploitation. It means treating her and ensuring treatment of her that is gentle, loving, and edifying.

2. Children:

(Proverbs 22:6 AMP Version) It says:

Train up a child in the way he should go {teaching him to seek Gods wisdom and will for his abilities and talents} even when he is old, he will not depart from it.

• We need to teach our children to look for wisdom in God. We need to teach them to love God first. This is a great way to show how much we love our kids, its when we spend time teaching them the ways of God. It is vital for their growth.
• We need to teach them Gods will for their lives. Too often we press our own wills on our children and we want them to do what we couldn’t do as children. Instead, let’s show them we love them by teaching them how to find Gods will for their own lives.
• We need to help them discover their God-given abilities and talents. To love our kids is to help them shine in what God has placed in them!

**********The featured image is a picture of myself with my husband and children; whom I love so much.*********