Results of Irresponsibility

God built a need for respect into the male of the human race. All men need this respect as they are growing up. God made men incomplete, so He made women to be their helpers. This incompleteness is apparent in men’s need for respect. That is why God requires women to respect their husbands.

Men want to have authority and respect. Is this wrong? No, not in itself. But responsibility comes with authority, and many men have abdicated this responsibility. Authority without responsibility makes men tyrants. If they pass the responsibility to their wives but do not delegate the corresponding authority to them, those wives cannot carry out the responsibility, and the husband will not.

Many of the Christian men I know today (as opposed to fifty years ago) come from families with irresponsible fathers and grandfathers. If they coast (even though they are now Christians), it will be downhill. They will imitate their fathers. They will be irresponsible to their wives and children, and maybe with money and things. They might be very responsible on the job and in their profession and have respect there, but not in their homes.

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Roots by the River

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