by Lindsey Maestas

Dear Wife,

In a practical sense, you and your husband are a team. Yes, he needs your help around the house, just as you need his. Yes, he needs your help with the kids. And I'm sure there have been plenty of moments when you've silently wondered, "What on earth would you do without me?" But, sweet friends, sometimes you may forget that he needs you for a whole lot more than house chores and motherly intuition.

He, as a flawed individual, needs you - emotionally, physically and spiritually. Not because he is weak, but because you and he are One - and he needs his other half.

Wives, we have the sweet privilege of helping, loving and nurturing our husbands. We will never satisfy or fulfill them in the way that Jesus can and will. We were never created to be that for them and therefore that burden is not on our shoulders.

And yet, your role as a wife is so crucial and beautiful. The next time you feel unseen or unnecessary in your husband's life, I want you to remember why you are so desperately vital to your groom.

1. He needs you to be strong where he is weak.

You, as a wife, have the opportunity to either make your husband feel as if he is the strongest or the smallest man in the world. God gave you a huge and wonderful influence in his life to empower and encourage him.

Sweet friends, please take note of this: The power that God has given us as women was not given to hurt, manipulate or crush our husbands. It was given to us so that we can honor and serve them - with kindness and a pure heart.

When we use our words to make our husbands feel small or unimportant, we are damaging him and weakening our marriage. But when we encourage his dreams (rather than squashing them) and remind him of his strengths (instead of always focusing on his weaknesses) we are displaying love and building him up.

Your husband needs you to help encourage and nurture his skills and abilities. Rather than allowing his weaknesses to be a point of conflict, take time to understand the strengths you have that your husband may not and use those to better him and your marriage.

2. He needs you to remind him that he is respected and respectable.

Insecurity seeps into the lives of men as often as it does with women, but it comes in a different form. Just as most women desire to be loved above all else, most men desire to be respected above all else. One of my favorite verses is Proverbs 31:12. It speaks of a noble woman and says, "She does him good and not harm, all the days of her life."

Most men strive to be respected and respectable, and your husband would be blessed to be reminded day in and day out that he is both of those things. You have the opportunity to be his best friend and help pull him out of his insecurity with your words and actions. Listen to him without interrupting, care about his problems and pray diligently for him. Thank him regularly for being the provider/daddy/husband/friend that he is, don't intercede on his choices or make his decisions for him and don't ever speak poorly of him in front of others.

True story: In my first year of marriage, I remember having an argument with my husband. I went to a close friend's house and discussed our disagreement aloud with the friends around me. I manipulated my words to make it seem as if I was "seeking counsel", but I knew exactly what I was doing.

A friend of mine gently addressed my gossip with me a few days later. I vividly recall feeling sick to my stomach for basically bashing my husband without giving him the chance to defend or speak for himself. Ever since that day, I have determined to never speak poorly of him. I strive to only speak well and to build him up in front of others, no matter what the situation may be.

Ephesians 5:33, "Let each one of you love his wife as himself, and let the wife see that she respects her husband."

3. He needs you to help create peace in your home.

I recently wrote a post on Instagram about my tendency to unleash on my husband as soon as he walks through the door. I have learned that our husbands need us, as wives, to be a safe place for them and for us to make our homes a safe place as well.

Romans 12:18, "If possible, so far as it depends on you, live peaceably with all."

Are there battles that you pick with your spouse that are avoidable? Are there arguments between you and your children that he has to hear as soon as he comes home from work? Do you expect him to bear the weight of your personal frustrations day after day?

Instead of fighting battles, our husbands need us to fight to pursue peace. Most women that I know are inherently empathetic, kind, compassionate, loving and understanding. When we pour our time and efforts into sharing those beautiful, God-given traits with our families, we are bound to create a more peaceful home.

And above all, let us always pray for God to allow peace, godliness and love to reign in our homes.

Colossians 3:12-14: "Put on then, as God's chosen ones, holy and beloved, compassionate hearts, kindness, humility, meekness, and patience, bearing with one another and, if one has a complaint against another, forgiving each other; as the Lord has forgiven you, so you also must forgive. And above all these put on love, which binds everything together in perfect harmony."

Wives, you are so very, very important. You are loved. You are valuable. Make use of the gifts and blessings that God has poured out onto your life and, in the same way, pour them onto your husband. He truly needs you - probably a whole lot more than you may know.

This article originally appeared on SparrowsandLily.com. Used with permission.

About The Author:

by Dr. Albert Mohler

Writing a generation ago, sociologist Christopher Lasch pointed to the weakening of the family as the most significant and dangerous development of our times. In his book, Haven in a Heartless World, Lasch described the breakdown of the natural family as a calamity for the society at large, as well as for the individuals whose lives are so directly affected.

Tellingly, he also wrote this: "The first thing to understand about the present crisis of the family is that it did not materialize overnight." Indeed, it did not. The current crisis of the family must be traced to economic, political, social, and ideological causes. But there is another cause as well. The family crisis is a theological crisis, and this must be the church's first concern.

The first theological fact about the family is the truth that the natural family (the family consisting of married parents of the opposite sex and their biological and adopted offspring) is not a product of human social evolution. The Bible reveals that God created human beings to live and to thrive within the context of the family, constituted on the foundation of marriage.

Genesis reveals God's act of creating human beings as male and female, uniting them in the covenant of marriage, and assigning to them the responsibility to multiply and to exercise both dominion and stewardship. The perfection of marriage was made clear by the fact that the man and the woman were naked in the Garden, and they were unashamed.

Christians affirm that the family is one of God's most essential gifts to his human children, and that honoring the Creator's design for marriage and the family is the pathway to glorifying God and to human flourishing. God gave marriage and the family in creation to all peoples everywhere, and as a testimony to this fact, every thriving society has found its way to marriage and the importance of the family. The family is the most basic unit of society, and if it is not honored and protected, a society cannot long survive.

But the second theological fact about the family is our even greater need for marriage and family as protections in a world marked by sin. In a fallen world, marriage and family become even more important, and not less. In such a world we need the protections and comforts offered by the covenant of marriage. The mutual obligations of husband and wife, the promise of fidelity, and the joys of life together take on a whole new importance in a world of dangers, toils, and snares. The gift of children and the commitment to raise them within the committed boundaries and protections of the family point to the importance of both father and mother to the safe and healthy development of both boys and girls. The Law includes detailed instructions on the protection of the family and how it is to be ordered.

The third theological fact about the family is the continued affirmation of the family within the redeemed people of God – the church. As the Gospels make clear, loyalty to Christ exceeds that of any family commitment, even as the church becomes the family of faith, embracing within its life all who come to faith in Christ and into the life of the church. And yet, Christians are explicitly instructed to honor marriage, to raise their children in the faith, and to order their family according to the Scriptures.

The fourth theological fact about the family is that this life has implications for the eternal life to come. There will be no marriage or giving in marriage in heaven, but our faithfulness in marriage and family in this life has eternal implications and consequences. The family that is ordered by the Gospel of Christ will be based on a marriage that pictures Christ's own love for the Church and will extend to children who are raised in the admonition of the Lord and are confronted with the Gospel and its promises.

The family is indeed in crisis. A recent report from the U.S. Census Bureau indicates that fully 40 percent of all babies born in the United States in 2011 were born to unmarried mothers. Divorce rates are catastrophic and unprecedented numbers of American adults are never marrying, creating a new non-marital underclass that passes on disastrous consequences that will harm generations to come. In some American neighborhoods, children and teenagers have never even been to a wedding, since marriage has simply ceased to exist as an expectation. Even when parents are married and live in the same house with their children, many of those children are actually raised by the mass media, with older children and teenagers often living in a digital world that is quite disconnected from their parents.

The social pathologies pile up in shocking statistics, but the greater tragedy is the injury in individual lives. Christians know that the family cannot save us. Only Christ can save. But we also know that God loves us and that he has given us marriage and the family for our protection and flourishing. The church must face the truth that the family crisis is, first of all, a theological crisis. Christians must recover a biblical understanding of the family and live before the world, celebrating and sharing the joys and satisfactions that the Creator gives us in this precious gift. We must live honestly before the world, knowing that our honest acknowledgement of our own need for God's grace in our marriages and families is a testimony to our need for the grace of God shown us in Jesus Christ.

Christians are rightly concerned about the family crisis in the society, and we must work to protect and defend the family against its enemies. We must be heartbroken witnesses to the dangers the family crisis has brought, even as we are joyful witnesses to the reality of marriages and families restored.

But, long before the society at large will care about our perspective on the family crisis, the church must humbly and faithfully show the world what God intended from the beginning, for his glory and for our good.

Before anything else, the family crisis is a theological crisis. And a theological crisis is the church's responsibility. In other words, the first responsibility in addressing the family crisis is ours, and ours alone.

by John O'Leary, RisingAbove.com

"You have been created so that you might make a difference.You have within you the power to change the world." – Andy Andrews

Who has impacted your life?

Often we think of parents, siblings, pastors, spouses, children and friends.

Occasionally, though, you realize those who have dramatically impacted your life were people you barely knew. Maybe even people you've forgotten you met.

I was reminded of this truth through a chance encounter last weekend.

You see, as a kid I loved to pretend I was in the army. We played with GI Joe guys in the backyard all day. Leaves transformed into landing crafts, mulch became enemy beaches and black ants became enemy soldiers.

My childhood playfulness continued after I was burned. In fact, my playfulness was especially important during the agonizing physical therapy sessions that followed. The sessions were torturous, there was one thing I could always look forward to: Playing once it ended.

After my session, the therapists would roll me out to the area for patients waiting for their rides. That's where I met a valet; he was a teenager named Scott.

Scott was my buddy.

He must have looked at this nine-year-old kid wrapped with bandages, eyes still watering from the session he'd just experienced, Velcro-strapped into a wheelchair, waiting for a ride home as an incredible opportunity to do something kind for someone who needed it. And every day he'd do exactly that.

After all of the pain in my therapy session, he provided me each day with a moment of peace, fun, and playfulness.

We'd act like we were in radio communication with the ambulances and that they were part of our army. Scott was my sergeant, I was his lieutenant. He took orders from me. He'd roll me to various spots to maximize my view of the ambulance traffic below. And when my ride arrived, Scott would do one more thing that always made my day: He'd let me talk on his walkie-talkie.

"Johnny to base. Johnny to base. Send reinforcements. Enemy approaching. Over and out."

Some angry security officer would then hop on and tell the kid to get off the radio!

And with a big, beaming smile on my face, my friend would push me toward my parent's car. He'd help me in, wave goodbye and tell me he looked forward to seeing me the next day.

I hadn't thought of or seen 19-year-old Scott valet in 28 years.

Until Saturday night.

My wife and I were at dinner celebrating Valentine's day. Beth recognized someone she used to work with. While the ladies chatted, I introduced myself to her husband, a man named Scott.

He asked me if I had ever been at St. John's Hospital and I said, "Yes. Why?"

Years ago, he said, he used to work as a valet. Parking cars. But there was one kid, one little patient, who grabbed his heart and remained part of his life in the almost three decades that followed. A little boy named 'Johnny.' He asked me if I might be that same kid.

My friends, you never know the impact your life may have on another. The ripple effect of our life is more profoundly significant than we grasp.

Sometimes you impact others by serving them. Sometimes you impact others by letting them serve you.

Today I challenge you to realize this truth.

We have been created in order that we might make a difference. We have within ourselves the power to change the world.

Today, embrace the gift of your life, the possibility within it and the truth that the best is yet to come.

by Tim Muldoon Discernment

This topic came up in class, and it gets better as I continue to think about it. Here's the thumbnail: the young Ignatius went to Jerusalem to imitate St. Francis, wanting to walk in Christ's footsteps and convert Muslims. But after he got there, the local priests sent him packing, and he was dejected. Why did God set him up for failure?

One of the most difficult periods in my own life was a professional failure. It made me question my motives, wonder whether I'd discerned badly, and second-guess whether God even cared. But God led me to undertake an intense year-and-a-half of the Spiritual Exercises and keep at the discernment question. Now, some time later, I'm still harvesting the fruits, one of which is the belief (with St. Ignatius) that sometimes God leads us to failure. For it can emerge in discernment as a clear "no." And many things in life are very unclear.

It's another one of those "aha" moments that I wonder why I didn't get sooner. Jesus experienced failure - a ministry cut short, disciples fleeing like scared school children, no "save the world" moments that every 30-something longs for. How wonderful it is to consider the Cross a failure - at least a temporary one. Failure is the crisis moment, the moment pregnant with meaning. Will he bounce back? What will she do next? For me, it was a chance to reassess the deep graces of my family, and to reaffirm that my primary vocation is not as a writer or teacher but as a husband and father. I really don't know what God's answer is to the original question that led me to the Exercises: What should I do now? But I am consoled by the graces of family life, from which I continue to draw life lessons. And I feel confirmed in that vocation, now years into marriage. The wounds of failure are still there, just like the wounds on the Risen Jesus, but I am beginning now to feel some gratitude for that failure. It has certainly disabused me of any pretensions to self-sufficiency. And as a result it has opened me to receive unexpected graces from those I love, and who show me God's love.

About Tim Muldoon

Tim Muldoon is the author a number of books, including The Ignatian Workout, Longing to Love, and Living Against the Grain, as well as many essays. He edits the journal Integritas: Advancing the Mission of Catholic Higher Education, a publication of the Boston College Roundtable.

by Greg Laurie

Even though the fig trees have no blossoms, and there are no grapes on the vines; even though the olive crop fails, and the fields lie empty and barren; even though the flocks die in the fields, and the cattle barns are empty, yet I will rejoice in the Lord! I will be joyful in the God of my salvation! - (Habakkuk 3:17-18)

Today's Scripture from the book of Habakkuk is a magnificent description of a heart that holds on to joy by faith. The prophet looked around him and knew he was in a season of deep trouble and need. But in spite of all the negative circumstances, he said, "I will rejoice in the Lord. I will be joyful in my God."

Solomon said, "For the happy heart, life is a continual feast" (Proverbs 15:15, NLT). The psalmist wrote that in the presence of God there is fullness of joy and at His right hand pleasures forevermore (see Psalm 16:11). Jesus said, "My purpose is to give them a rich and satisfying life" (John 10:10, NLT). God wants us to experience joy as believers — not a fickle happiness that depends on circumstances or changes with the wind direction, but a joy that remains in spite of what may be taking place around you.

Anyone can be relatively happy when things are going well. But when you face adversity or sickness or hardship and then rejoice, you show that something supernatural has occurred in your life. In fact, you show yourself to be a real Christian. This is a unique trait of believers — that we can rejoice when things go wrong.

How do we do it? We find the key in Philippians 4:4: "Rejoice in the Lord always. Again I will say, rejoice!" Paul didn't say to rejoice in circumstances. Rather, he said to rejoice in the Lord. In other words, God is still on the throne. You're still going to heaven. You're still forgiven. God still has a plan for your life; He has not abandoned you. We need to take joy in the Lord always. That is the key. I recognize that in spite of what I may be going through right now, His plans for me are still good. And He will never leave or forsake me.