Think a minute…Chris Spielman was a professional football player in the U.S. for 10 years. He was famous for his aggressive playing and tough tackling. But just before the 1998 professional football season, his wife discovered she had cancer. Chris chose to sit out an entire year of his professional career so he could give full-time care to his sick wife. In fact, he helped her win her fight against cancer.
A year later at the beginning of the 1999 football season, when he was returning to his career, Chris Spielman injured his neck so badly that he was forced to stop playing professional football permanently, for the rest of his life.
Think of the sacrifice this husband made to take care of his wife. He never played professional football again. Yet Spielman told news reporters that he gladly chose to stop playing so he could care for his sick wife. He loves her and their children much more than his high-paying career as a professional athlete. This is what he said to reporters: “I told my wife Stephanie that I want to be the one who takes her to the doctor for medicine and treatments. I want to be the one who holds her hand. I want to be the one who takes care of our kids when she is not able to.”
It takes a truly strong man to let go of his own desires and dreams, so he can take care of the needs of his wife and children first. But that may be what it takes to be the “man of the house” that our wife and kids really need. Our challenge is that we do not naturally have that kind of inner strength and character to truly love and put our wife and children first. Yet that is what a real leader does: he serves the ones he is leading, even if at times it costs him his own personal needs, desires and ambitions.
This is why God showed us the perfect example of a real man and leader. God the Son humiliated Himself by becoming a human being to suffer and sacrifice Himself for us whom He deeply loves. Jesus wants to give you His same power and strength of character so you can become a real man and servant-leader of your family. A husband and father who will do whatever it costs to give the true love and leadership your wife and children need. That’s the only way you can provide for them the secure, happy life they long for. Won’t you ask Jesus to start changing your heart and character as the true “man of the house”? Just think a minute…