Author: Jim Corbett

How is your marriage working? Do you, as a husband, love your wife as Christ loved His church, dying daily for her as he died for you? Do you and your wife love each other in a way that your children see the example of Christ and the church?

How about your children? Are they well on their way to a significant life because the life of Christ is alive and well in them? Do you and they have a loving companionship? Are they receptive to the deep things of God because you represent to them the way Christ lived?

If you answer all the above questions negatively, you need to make some changes. In God's economy, you, as a husband and father, have a God-given responsibility to establish a Christ-like atmosphere that nurtures His ways and His plans in your family. If that's not happening, it's time to dive into your prayer closet and find out what God desires you to do about it.

When anything is out-of-line in a family, most people look for the others involved to change. God looks for you to change. Your office holds so much spiritual power that as you go spiritually, so goes your family. Any and every problem can be defeated if you determine to make your relationship with your Father in heaven your priority in life. You and your family win if you humble yourself before your Lord. All of you lose if you don't take up your responsibility. Will you be the first to respond?

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Jim Corbett

My grandfather was a stoic German, who was incapable of treating his wife as anything more than a child-bearing servant of his whims. He also raised his children with harsh discipline. He could only do what he had been taught by his father, who probably learned from his father, etc., etc. I saw my dad reel at times from the lack of love he was given. He survived in a civil manner and was able to raise my brother and sisters and me relatively free from his father's abuse, only because of the kind of man he turned out to be.

That doesn't happen very often. Generations of fathers have unknowingly wounded their sons and daughters because their fathers wounded them. In general, men and women are either blessed or plagued by whatever capability or incapability their fathers had while raising them. Most people who struggle through life are doing so because of the input of their fathers. Many times lifelong struggles ensue because of some undoneness passed along by their fathers.

If you are still attempting to live up to your father's expectations, or reeling because he was incapable of loving you, you are more than likely passing some of that emotional baggage on to your children. It doesn't have to be that way for you, as a husband and father, if you are in Christ. You can stop now and receive the healing Jesus offers you. You can extend forgiveness because you have been forgiven. You can be healed because of the work Jesus did for you at the cross.

Start here. You are loved so much by your Father in heaven that He desires to spend eternity with you. You have an open door of communication to express all your wounds and needs to Him. You can learn how to love as He does because of His promises, mercy, and grace. You can prosper and live a significant life as you go to Him in your need. You can break the cycle of any form of abuse you may have received because of His love. It's time to pass on God's kind of love. Your family will thrive!

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Jim Corbett

The Amplified Bible says that we are to "train up a child in the way he should go [and in keeping with his individual gift or bent]...". If we treat our children accordingly, we can help guide them into the life God has designed for them. We are to study them and discover their natural abilities, interests, and the things they prosper in, so that we can build the proper atmosphere for learning around them. In doing so, they can follow the patterns that are most comfortable for them, which will hold their interest and lead them toward success.

That is only one part of the perfect plan God has for your children. You, as a father, must help build taste buds in them for the deep things of God through the power of the Holy Spirit. I don't mean that you should in any way force religious jargon down their throats until they choke; absolutely not. You are to become intimately in love with the Lord, longing to have Him live His life through you.

As you become all that you can be in Christ, your children will want the incredible life you enjoy. They will long to have the freedom, the wonder, the wisdom, and the power that they see in your life because of Him. The opportunity is there so that they too can become all they can be in Christ. Because they have the freedom to function in the bent God's given them, and they flourish through the intimate communion they gain from loving Jesus, there is nothing in the world that can minimize the significance of their lives.

Let's talk more!

Jim Corbett