Category: MASH United

Do your children know of their intrinsic value? I’m not talking about telling them how well they’re performing. I’m talking about how valuable they are to God and to you. If you are a father who is performance-oriented and you place your expectations on your children, they may grow up to be successful because of the striving attitude you’ve taught them; but they’ll never be able to rest in the worth they have simply because they’re breathing.

God has called everyone into being. His desire was for all of your children to be born, and He calls them good. As a father, you are to carry on His attitude toward them. You’re commanded to build in them, by the power of the Holy Spirit, a knowledge of His love and acceptance of them. You’re to show them they are accepted just as they are and not for what they do. It begins with teaching them how much you appreciate them as His representatives.

If you are not in the habit of affirming your children and have set a course where they need your approval to maintain their worth, they’re on the road to a life of needing that approval even after you’re gone. If they don’t have it, they will need to find it from some other source. Many lives are spent seeking approval of some kind because you, as a father, haven’t established God’s kind of approval in them through your words and actions toward them.

Begin now! Seek the Lord as to how you can be used to change the course of the direction of the lives of your children. Ask Him to show you the wounds you may have already caused and how He wants to use you to heal them. Commit to creating an atmosphere of affirming their worth with your words and actions, so they are free to be who they are. Give them the freedom to fail without your disapproval. Give them the freedom to live their lives, not yours. Show them Jesus through your attitude toward them. You will be amazed at how beautiful they really are.

Let’s talk more!

Jim Corbett

When was the last time you sat down and simply told your wife of her value? I don’t mean the “I love you, Honey.” I’m talking about looking her in the eyes and telling her how valuable she is not only in God’s eyes, but in yours, too.

In the Word, you, as a husband, are directed to lay your life down for your wife in the same way Jesus laid His life down for you. He died for you; you are told to die to all your selfishness and personal interests in regard to your wife and your marriage. Affirming her is one way to do that.

Men, take this challenge. Wait on the Lord for His timing. In the proper time - when your heart believes it - make a special effort to tell your wife of her intrinsic value and how important she really is. Let her know you consider her a gift, and that you’re thankful God put you together. Start there and take it wherever God leads. Do it regularly and mean it.

Next, find opportunities throughout your life to affirm your wife in front of your children. Stay away from the amorous stuff, and focus on the habit of letting them see your Christ-like attitude toward her when they are around - even if she’s not there. Whether you know it or not, they’re watching and learning from you. Teach them the wonder of expressing value by your words and your actions. It will go a long way in allowing them to see the character of Christ up close and personal.

Let’s talk more!

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!

Let’s talk more!

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