The characteristics of serving, protecting, guiding and guarding are all fundamentally important to the design of man as a reflection of God’s image. This is who God created men to be and all are equally important. The one that speaks to me personally is protecting. My husband has recently been working through some lies that he has come to believe and replacing these with God’s truth. One of the words that has been spoken is protector and with that the image of a warrior. This affirms that God created my husband in his image to be a protector. In the bible God protects us from our enemy’s (2 Thessalonians 3;3), trouble (Psalms 138:7), provides strength (Isiah 41:10), rescues (2 Timothy 4:18), and so many more examples. These are qualities that I observe in the true character of my husband. They are qualities that I now look at to understand more about the character of God through him. It is my role as my husbands helper to affirm these truths as a way to build up his journey and continued walk towards growth in being more like Christ.
Every year God gives me a word to explore and provides understanding of His definition of this word. This year my word is strength. The strength in my husband has been revealed in a new way. My role as his wife is to build him up in the truth of what God has revealed. God made my husband with incredible strength that in the world can sometime be perceived as weakness. It is my role as his wife to remind him of the truth. My thoughts were a helpmate was weakness but now God has opened my eyes to the strength in this role. I am a person who encourages providing strength to others through words and actions. This is one of our roles as women of God.
What qualities do you see in your husband? Are you affirming him in these Godly gifts? Take sometime to pray about how to build up your husband and affirm him.