Fathers Are Needed: Devotions From Time Of GraceSample

Fathers are needed for leadership.

It takes no brains to figure out the woman’s unique role in the home, i.e., what she alone is gifted for. Husbands and wives alike can be breadwinners, maintenance engineers, house cleaners, and cooks. But it is she alone who gives birth; she alone can nurse.

So is there anything unique to what the man brings? Machines have helped equalize the physical strength gap. Scripture has an important teaching about how God designed the home to work: “The husband is the head of the wife as Christ is the head of the church, his body, of which he is the Savior” (Ephesians 5:23). To the wife has been given management of childbearing, nurture, and sexuality. To the husband God gave the task and role of leadership.

He is called the head, but not corporate head, i.e., the one who gives orders and controls things. He is to be head as Christ is head of the church, his body. In other words, it’s something almost organic, whereby he carries out his role for the good of the whole family. Somebody has to have a tie-breaking vote when there isn’t total agreement. Someone makes the final call on who will take turns yielding today.

Christian husbands accept responsibility for everyone’s well-being. As chief servants, they go first for the dirtiest and most dangerous jobs. They also have a head, Jesus Christ, from whom they take instruction and to whom they know they are accountable.