God expects a lot from men. Especially husbands and fathers.

This is consistent throughout Scripture, but here’s a few verses that speak to this idea.

Ephesians 6:4
Fathers, do not exasperate your children; instead, bring them up in the training and instruction of the Lord.

Ephesians 5:23-33
Love your wives, just as Christ loved the church and gave himself up for her to make her holy, cleansing her by the washing with water through the word, and to present her to himself as a radiant church, without stain or wrinkle or any other blemish, but holy and blameless. In this same way, husbands ought to love their wives as their own bodies.

Sometimes I don’t know what to do with that. I mean, the weight (or influence) that I have as a man. It’s staggering.

If you’re like me, it’s easy to become numb to verses that you’ve read over and over, but try to listen to this with fresh ears – God commands husbands to love their wives like He loved the church.

Now, that command, if I’m honest, is crushing to me as a husband. And the reason is that I know that I can’t love Katie like Christ loved the church. On my best days, my best moments are only glimpses of what His self-sacrificial love looks like. So, what do I with that?

Listen, my point here is not to give a self-deprecating message – that you and I are scum and shouldn’t be husbands or dads or whatever else. It’s to say that I think feeling the weight of our role and responsibility is a good thing. So often, I move past commands like these, rather than sitting under the weight of them. When we see the command to love our wives “as Christ loved the church”, or that we are the ones responsible for bringing up our children “in the training and instruction of the Lord”, it should move us to dependency.

The realization that we cannot do what God has called us to do without Him. The realization that we are needy.

I had a conversation with a friend of mine recently who said it well. After talking about the responsibilities and influence placed on us as men, he commented “my shoulders aren’t broad enough. I’m glad that His are.” That picture connected with me in a powerful way. My shoulders are not broad enough. But HIS are.

My posture as a man should be brokenness, not pride. Humility, not self-sufficiency. Praying that God would help me love and lead those around me in a way that reflects Him.