How to Balance Being a Husband and a Father

Guard Your Marriage

When a young man transitions from being not only a husband but also a father, that adds a layer of complexity to the dynamics of his entire existence.

The one-flesh union of marriage is the husband and wife only. On their wedding day, a husband and wife step inside the circle of the one-flesh union: “Therefore a man shall leave his father and his mother and hold fast to his wife, and they shall become one flesh” (Genesis 2:24). Not even their children are inside that circle.

One of the challenges to navigate in those years of not only being a husband but now a father as well is not just to care for the children, but to preserve the integrity and the joy inside the circle of the one-flesh union with your wife. The children don’t belong inside that circle. That is a little piece of Eden—an aftertaste of Eden—that a young dad experiences only with his wife.

God is willing to give wisdom to every young dad to know how to attend to the children adequately but also preserve that one-flesh tenderness, intimacy, joy, and companionship with his wife that belongs to her only.