Being the Head is a Big Responsibility

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Hello wonderful people, I trust you are doing great today. I am doing great too and I bless the Lord for your lives and mine.

We can’t exhaust learning, and learning on marriage issues is just so important. And so we will try to learn from a story that I will share in today’s post.

There is this beautiful young lady married to a wonderful husband. She happens to be the breadwinner of her family and she bears the financial burden of the family. She pays the children’s school fees, pays the house rent, pays the utility bills in the house and pays for the nanny that cares of the children; all thanks to her good paying job. Although the husband works and earns less in income compared to the wife, he contributes nothing to the upkeep of the home. And to now make it a little more interesting, the husband’s younger brother leaves with them with his live-in girlfriend and he lives large as a king in a home at the expense of his brother’s wife where neither he nor his brother who is the husband and head of the home contributes no money to the running of the home.

But something happened one day that eventually made this wife come to me. The wife bought a wi-fi modem to use in the house should in case she has some leftover office work to do in the house. And the husband demanded to use the wi-fi to download films and some applications on his phone to which she obliged him and on the second day he requested the wi-fi again at which point she refused and that issue turned from an argument to a fight and she was beaten black and blue by her husband. The husband who contributes nothing in the home destroyed a handful of their home appliances in rage.

I am sure a normal person would simply tell the wife to pack her things and depart from the one sided marriage but we will not look at this issue from a human perspective, we will go back to the word of God and see what God says in His word.  

Ephesians 5:22-25 says, “Wives, submit to your husbands as to the Lord. For the husband is the head of the wife as the Christ is the head of the church, his body, of which he is the Saviour. Now as the church submits to Christ, so also wives should submit to their husbands in everything.

The other part of that passage Ephesians 5:25-29 reads, “Husbands, 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 blemish, but holy and blameless. In this same way, husbands ought to love their wives as their own bodies. He who loves his wife loves himself. After all, no-one ever hated his own body, but he feeds and care for it, just as Christ does the church.”

Like I said earlier, it’s important that we don’t look at this issue from the human perspective but from the outlook of the word of God if we want the intervention of God in the situation and all other situations we might be going through.

The first instruction on marriage is to the wife and that instruction says a wife should submit to her husband as unto the Lord. Without adding or subtracting from this instruction what God expects from a wife is to submit totally and in everything to her husband. Again, the dictionary defines that word submit as “to give over or yield to the power or authority of another.” So if God says a wife should submit to her husband, what God is saying without adding or subtracting from that instruction is that a wife must yield herself to the authority of her husband. A word synonymous in meaning to the word submit is the word obey. So we can understand the instruction of God to be that a wife must obey her husband in everything.  

Applying this instruction to the issue on ground, I advised the woman in this situation and would advise all other women similar situation that if her husband asked her for her wi-fi modem, in the spirit of obedience to the instruction of God to her as a wife she should give it to him. Not because he deserves it, but because she is obeying the word of God for her life.

If she does this, first she would have averted the violence that followed her refusal and she would have a ground to go to God in prayer seeking Him to fight her battles for her. If she can trust God to wake her up in the morning and sustain her through the day she can as well trust Him to right all the wrongs of her marriage.

One interesting thing that I believe God will make happen with her obedience is that the wi-fi data will not be exhausted until she is able to adequately complete the assignment for which she acquired the modem. That is why we are able to call God a miracle working God. God is the source of that modem, and God will be the sustaining factor of her supply. 

But I find a mistake this woman is making and which a lot of other women are making which eventually leads to frustration in marriage. Do not assume the role of the head in any capacity in your marriage, not even in financial matters when you are earning more than your husband. The Lord has made your husband the head of the home and everything he needs to be the head, God is making them available for him, if and when necessary according to the ability of the husband to tap into God’s provision and grace for his life. God will not give anyone an assignment to do for him without adequately equipping that person for the assignment. 

The assignment for the wife is to assist and not to lead even when she is earning more. Assist and build a reserve but do not lead in the spending for the home. In truth we find it in Proverbs 31:10-31 that a wife of noble character provide for her family and supports her husband. Even in her providing for the home which I encourage so well, her assignment is to support and assist but not lead.

God didn’t assign the wife to be the breadwinner for her family and to be paying house rent and children’s school fees. These are responsibilities for the leader to do, when the husband genuinely needs help the wife can come in and help. But when she makes it a habit of carrying the breadwinner role, she will give her husband room to sit lazy, it will not be long before frustration sets in because God has not called you to that role and responsibility in marriage. 
When the wife is spending for the home, initially the husband might still strive to be the head in financial matters of the home, but over time he wouldn't see the need for striving anymore because his wife would pay the bills anyway. Even when he has the money, he will not be compelled to take up the task because his wife is already doing it and there isn't any issue. And so we as wives need to be careful not to start what we know we will complain about much later. 

When your husband needs your financial assistance, there absolutely is nothing wrong in assisting him financially because that is what you are in life for and the Bible confirms in Ecclesiastes 4:9 that two are better than one because they have a good returns for their labor. But woe to him who labors alone. Neither you nor your husband would do well alone, but you two would have a better returns on effort when you both put in your effort, but in this equation the husband is to take the lead and the wife is to assist and not the other way round.

Another important area that a wife should help her husband is to pray for him. Seek the face of God to realize into his life all that he needs to succeed as the head of the home and not to just continue to pump money doing what you have not been assigned to do rather than praying. Your husband needs more of your prayers than your money, he just doesn’t know it. When you pray more for him, heaven will open for him and he will be able to fulfill his mandate in the marriage, but when you continue to spend your money he already has the respite and would not see the need to strive more. He would concluded within himself that his wife is capable of solving the problem so why should he bother. Which is the very wrong approach. Supporting your husband is good, but don’t take up his responsibility as your own. It will wear you out.

With due repeat to the men, it is a big act of irresponsibility for a man to leave his wife to carry the financial load of the family when he still alive and well. A man who does that has absolutely no moral justification to accrue to himself the right to be head of his family. He shouldn’t even attempt to claim that title whether or not God called him so, because the Living God who says the man is the head of his wife also says that a man who does not provide for his family is worse than an unbeliever (1 Timothy 5:8).

And then we find in Malachi 2:13 and 1 Peter 3:7 that God says he will not pay attention to the prayers of a man who has broken faith with his wife, who does not treat her with love and respect. What God expects of a husband to his wife is that he makes her a priority in all areas of their relationship together as husband and wife just like Christ has made the church His priority and not exploit her in the foolishness of playing smart. What such a man is doing in foolishness is that he is hindering answers to his own prayers and when God has stopped to pay attention to a man’s prayers how does such a man prosper?

Invariably what the man is doing to himself is placing himself under his wife rather than above her which is his rightful place and then he wants to force headship over his wife. Such is not done. Leadership is responsibility. The power that accrues to leadership also holds with it more responsibility. So beating your wife to submission does not get the job done, you are in fact heaping more curse on your life when you are violent with your wife because God says he hates a violent man (Malachi 2:16). Rather you love your wife to submission. A woman should not be the breadwinner of the family, its like a husband selling his right to be the head over his wife.

A man who lack the means to provide for his family should approach the throne of God and seek the face of God over his financial problems. Deuteronomy 15:4 says, “There should be no poor among you, for in the land the Lord your God is giving to you to possess as your inheritance, he will richly bless you,” and so we see that the blessing of the Lord is richly available to those who seek it diligently. The Lord who has asked you to provide for your family does not expect you to accomplish that assignment without Him, Philippians 4:6 says with prayer and thanksgiving we should make our request known to God and then Philippians 4:19 tells us that God will provide all our needs according to His glorious riches in Christ Jesus and not your wife. So look up to God to provide for you all that you need to be a befitting head over your wife in all things. 

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