Husbands, let’s rise to these challenges and love our wives well. Your marriage not only impacts your wife, but your children and future generations. By how you love your wife, you’re teaching your sons how to treat women and you’re teaching your daughters what they should expect from men. RELATED: The 25 Best Pieces Of Marriage Advice Happy Couples Follow Let’s commit to giving our wives and families our very best.
This is not a comprehensive list, but here’s what wives deserve from their husbands:
1. Open, honest, consistent communication
Communication does for a marriage what breathing does for your lungs. Be willing to turn off ESPN and put your iPhone down, and engage in meaningful conversation. Never hide anything from her. Build a foundation of trust, honesty, and open communication. “I used to think communication is key until I realized comprehension is. You can communicate with someone all you want but if they don’t understand you, it won’t reach them the way you need it to.” Every one of your words and every action is either building more of her trust or eroding her trust in you. Remove distractions and make communication a high priority. RELATED: The 50 Best Marriage Tips Of All Time, From 50 Marriage Experts
2. Physical, emotional and financial protection
You should be the one who wipes away your wife’s tears, not the one who causes them. “Our love is too precious for this world. So let me just keep you in my heart. Safe and sound. Where no one can judge us. And where no one can disparage us.” Develop the discipline to work hard inside and outside the home to make your wife feel like the safest and most secure woman on earth. Have the courage to fight for your family and the faith to recognize that you need a power greater than your own.
3. Your time — both “quality time” and “quantity time”
Time is the “currency” of relationships, so invest as much time as you can into your marriage. You need to make money, but don’t use your career as an excuse to be absent. When you’re home, be present, not distracted or glued to a screen. Work hard, but also remember that your family can do with less of almost anything if it means having more of you.
4. Continuous pursuit
For most of us, we gave our wives the best we had in the very beginning, but just like a cable TV company that offers their best package, pricing and service at the beginning changes after the “promotional period” expires. Many of us have stopped giving our wives the best of ourselves. We’ve allowed romance to fade. Our wives need and deserve our continued adoration, thoughtfulness and love. Give her your very best each and every day. RELATED: Beware! These 12 Common Problems Threaten Even Happy Marriages Dave Willis is a husband, dad, pastor and author of several relationship books, including “The Seven Laws of Love: Essential Principles for Building Stronger Relationships.” His wife, Ashley, is a co-founder of StrongerMarriages.com, the Facebook Marriage Page, and the “MarriageApp” on iTunes. Find more of his resources on his website. This article was originally published at strongermarriages.com. Reprinted with permission from the author.
