by Yvonne Strachan

When a father leads his family spiritually, his children light up in a different way! According to a spiritual and educational survey on Christian millennials by the National Home Education Research Institute (NHERI), children who develop a strong relationship with their father during their formative years are more likely to maintain a positive relationship with him throughout adulthood. This nurturing bond, especially when the father invests his time imparting biblical principles and raising his children with consistent, loving discipline, will significantly and positively shape their Christian beliefs and behaviors. Your husband’s spiritual leadership will impact your children’s engagement within their communities and lead to greater satisfaction in their adult lives.¹

A father’s spiritual leadership has a profound impact! That’s why supporting your husband’s spiritual leadership is vital. But how can you best support him? Here are four powerful actions you can take to provide unwavering support!

1. Give Your Husband Room to Fulfill His Role as a Spiritual Leader

Knowing the impact fathers have on children, have you ever considered whether you might be doing something that discourages your husband’s spiritual leadership? In other words, are you letting your husband lead?

Sometimes, women do not see their husbands as spiritual leaders. Instead of supporting their husbands’ spiritual leadership, they turn to teachers, youth pastors, or online resources. While those are all excellent resources, Ephesians 5:23 reminds us that our husbands are the heads of our households. Therefore, I have found that the best way to support my husband’s spiritual leadership is to seek his guidance first and value his insightful efforts.

2. Respect Your Husband

Imagine how difficult it would be to guide and help someone while they criticize your efforts — your desire to keep trying would lessen with every critique.

When you ask your husband questions, be careful not to criticize him or expect him to know all the answers. Instead, encourage your husband by letting him know you are excited to learn from him when he is ready to share what he discovered. Then, patiently allow him time and space to study. After all, he does not need to know everything. Even pastors study before they preach!

All Scripture is breathed out by God and profitable for teaching, for reproof, for correction, and for training in righteousness, that the man of God may be complete, equipped for every good work (2 Timothy 3:16-17 ESV).

Remember, the power is in God’s Word. As you rely on your husband for spiritual guidance, his confidence to lead spiritually will only grow!

3. Help Your Husband Leverage His Unique Giftings

As homeschool parents, we dedicate ourselves to nurturing our children’s unique strengths, joys, and interests so they can combine them with compassion as they serve God and others throughout their lives.

Realize that you and your husband have also been blessed with uniquely different abilities and strengths. Your husband’s expressions of faith may look different than yours. His teaching style may be displayed through integrity, integration, and interaction.

As you unite together with Christ, your joined abilities make a powerful impact on your children’s lives. Together, you can explore ways your husband can utilize his strengths to lead your family spiritually. For example, if he likes hiking and teaching survival skills, you can have fun collaborating to create a “backpack ministry” using survival tools. Perhaps you can use one of your gifts to complement his. Maybe you are blessed with an artistic ability that you can use to create a few outdoor-themed Bible verse stickers that correlate with activities he has planned. You can place them on the gear he wants to use during your family hike.

Your husband’s customized gear is guaranteed to make him smile as he reflects on the memories of your loving and thoughtful collaboration. It will also empower him to facilitate natural discipleship opportunities throughout the hike. As he incorporates a biblical message into what he already enjoys doing, his natural fulfillment and excitement will shine through, generating joy-filled memories and inspiration for everyone throughout the hiking experience. There is indeed a significant difference in the impact of listening to someone who is merely going through the motions of teaching a lesson he feels obligated to, compared to someone who is genuinely passionate about the subject he is teaching!

4. Recognize and Appreciate Your Husband’s Spiritual Leadership

Recognizing and appreciating how God made your husband is important. Rather than focusing on what your husband is doing or, more specifically, the details of how your husband is doing it, express your gratitude for his efforts. As you focus on showing gratitude to your spouse, you will enjoy the benefit of fostering more positive thoughts, emotions, and behavior toward each other, creating more enjoyment throughout your marriage and family life. Take a moment to write down your thoughts, listing specific actions and qualities you notice and appreciate about your husband. Then, share your appreciative thoughts with him. Your expression of gratitude will be more meaningful and help him feel more loved. Your husband will want to do more of what you thank him for!

In addition to these powerful ways to support your husband’s spiritual leadership, consider encouraging him with a thoughtful gift that conveys how thankful you are for his faithful, spiritual pouring into your family. Gift him a time of rest and refreshment where he can get away from his day-to-day activities and be inspired through fellowship with other like-minded fathers who want to pour their time and energy into shepherding their families and discipling their children. Who knows? He may arrive home rejuvenated with exciting new ideas for ministering to your family.

As you support your husband’s spiritual leadership, enjoy the outpouring of God’s blessing on your family. Your unwavering support will bolster your husband’s efforts and bless many generations to come!

Blessings,

Yvonne Strachan

P.S. What would make your list of ways to support your husband’s spiritual leadership? Comment and share what you have learned that works!

Discover this annual event organized by CHEC and Generations, specially curated to strengthen the father son relationship and empower fathers to disciple all of their children!

Do you want to raise your children to become future leaders who honor Jesus Christ? Check out this blog post!

About the Author: Yvonne Strachan

Yvonne Strachan is on a mission to inspire and empower parents as she and her husband disciple their children, including one who has special needs. She is the author of the book Inspirational Homeschooling, writes blog posts, and has had her articles published in magazines. She also supports the homeschool community by interviewing others as a radio show host. Drawing from her professional experience consulting with parents who are educating their children at home and teaching homeschool art classes for nearly a decade, Yvonne co-founded a home education support group in her community. What joy it brings her to combine all these passions as she serves homeschool families with CHEC!

1. Ray, B. D. (2016, June 27). Gen2 survey: A spiritual and educational survey on Christian millennials. National Home Education Research Institute. https://www.nheri.org/gen2-survey-a-spiritual-and-educational-survey-on-christian-millennials/