Wants and Needs

You can meet your wife's wants yet still miss her needs. That's what the deal is. Your wife doesn't need you to work twelve hours a day. More likely, it's you who "needs" to work that much. You're out there trying to find your identity and establish your worth and value. You're out there for you more than for her. What she needs is for you "to live with her in an understanding way ... since she is a woman"! A little feminine understanding can go a long way in meeting your wife's real needs.

~Robert Lewis and William Hendricks

What a challenge to get this part figured out. It is so easy to rationalize many of the decisions we make as being necessary for our family. How truly have we compared our rationale against the Bible and against what we, as leaders of our family, know should be the reasons for our actions. I know that I, along with my wife, have adopted societies reasons for much of what we do. Working hard to pay of debt is good to a point, working just as hard so we can have a bigger house and more things is a little harder to rationalize biblically.

Why is it so hard to find this balance in the world we live in? I swear I will make dramatic swings in thought and word almost daily concerning the direction and reasoning behind my actions and the actions of my family. Lord that I would be consistent, confident, and courageous in the message I show and send to the world and my family.