Tag: jesus christ

This life continually offers us choices. Many of those choices are slam dunks because the options available are simple. Right is always right, and wrong is always wrong. There are many times, however, when choices are not simple. Sometimes weighing all the factors doesn’t lead to making choices clear.

Motivated by love, Jesus made a choice to leave heaven and come to earth. In the garden, He made the choice to do His Father’s will. It was also a choice motivated by love. His whole time on this earth was motivated by the love He had for His Father and for us. We are to walk as He walked if we call ourselves His followers.

As a husband and father, you have been placed in the position of being responsible before God for those you steward. You are presented with many choices that determine the outcome in situations that impact the lives of others. It’s a responsibility of your God-given office and it’s important to Him.

Some choices are easy. When choices that require more than simple decisions are before you, you can never go wrong if you choose love when you make them. You’re to lay down your life as Jesus laid down His life. You’re to live for the best interests of others. If the choice you face is doing something either for your best interest or the best interests of others, follow the life decisions of Jesus. Choose love! Make the choice that is in the best interests of the others involved rather than yours. Jesus did it; so should you at every opportunity. Abba likes that!

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Jim Corbett

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.

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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.

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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