Journey to Surrender

As part of the redesign of The Journey to Surrender I will be introducing some new regular features. The first of these to be rolled out is Man-Up Monday.

Welcome to the first official installment.

What is Man-up Monday? It is a series of topics and challenges, posted every Monday, written especially for husbands. You could say my post “The Body Image Battle,” which has been my most read post to date, served as part of the inspiration for Man-up Monday. If you haven't read it, go do it now.  Go ahead, I'll wait for you to come back.
The other reason for Man-up Monday? Your wife wants it.

When I started this blog, I honestly expected to get a lot of grief from wives. I supposed that the notion of the bridal paradigm (that marriage was designed by God and modeled for us in the relationship between Jesus, the bridegroom, and the church, his bride) would generate a lot of negative response from women. I expected to hear such things as “Submission? Oh please,” or “That’s not fair,” or “What, am I supposed to be some kind doormat?” or similar statements, in response to the biblical notion that a man is to be head of his wife and lead her in a manner that reflects Christ’s love for the church.

So far at least, I haven’t heard much like that. Rather, what I can tell you, men, is that by an order of magnitude the most popular search engine terms that have landed people on my blog have to do with husbands not stepping up as leaders. Here are just a few recent examples (direct quotes from my blog tracking system):

• Christian husband won't assume leadership role in family
• when your husband won't lead (phrase appeared 3 separate times)
• husband won't step up and be the leader
• what to do when your husband wont lead the family
• how can i get my husband to lead
• my husband doesn't lead this home

And these searches are only from the last two weeks.

The bottom line men, is that your wives are eagerly looking for you to lead them and to step into your God-given role of authority in your family. Don’t believe me? Just ask your wife. But don’t ask her unless you are ready to respond by “manning up.“

What does it mean to man-up? Short answer: it means being like Jesus toward your wife. Tall order, you say? Yes, it is. But you are called to nothing less.

Husbands, love your wives, just as Christ loved the church and gave himself up for her. Ephesians 5:25

Stay tuned to future Man-up Mondays, where we’ll continue to unpack these simple biblical truths that have the power to radically impact your marriage. Consider subscribing by email (see left side bar) so you don’t miss an issue!