Life is full of ups and downs, and at some point, I can guarantee that you will find yourself in a situation in which you need to encourage your husband.
Maybe it’s because of a disagreement with someone in the family or maybe it’s a bad health report. Perhaps a stressful situation at work is weighing your hubby down. Or it could be financial difficulties.
When life circumstances start to drain the confidence of our husbands, and they are weighed down by worry and stress, they need their wives to be their cheerleaders. When you encourage your husband, you give him the strength he needs to keep persevering through a difficult situation.
So exactly how can you encourage your husband? Here are six practical ways you can do just that.
- Speak life into him.
You may be the only person in the world who says uplifting words to your husband. His boss probably doesn’t, nor do his friends. Especially when he is going through a hard time, shower him with praise. Tell him how smart he is, what a hard worker he is, what a good provider he is, etc. Use your words to tell him that good things are ahead and to never lose hope. Your voice can help defeat the negative voices in his head. - Make it possible for him to spend time with life-giving friends.
As hard as we work to boost our husbands’ confidence, sometimes they just need to hear it from other men. So encourage your husband to spend time with friends who are life-giving. Not the ones who spend all their time talking solely about sports or politics, but the friends who care enough to see a hurting heart and pour into it. Even if it means you have to do extra work, your hubby needs this time during a hard season. - Bring laughter into his life.
Madeleine L’Engle, the author of A Wrinkle in Time, said, “A good laugh heals a lot of hurts.” And though laughter won’t make a bad situation go away, it does provide a momentary distraction and decrease stress. So you may need to sit through Dumb and Dumber or Office Space in order to help your husband. - Help him feel like a winner.
If circumstances are draining your husband’s confidence in one area, help him succeed in another. For example, if there are problems at work, encourage your husband to invest more time in his health. Or ask him to tackle a home project to give him a sense of accomplishment. He needs to feel like a winner again to restore his self-confidence. - Give him sex.
Y’all, men are so weird, but sex cures almost anything for them. If he feels inadequate, sex will fix it. If he got passed over for a promotion, sex will help fix it. If he stubbed his toe, sex will fix it. I do not pretend to understand the male mind, and I’m not sure I really want to, but in this area, they are very simple. - Pray for him.
Not long ago, I would have said prayer doesn’t really count as something practical. But going through a battle with cancer changed my mind. James 5:16b says, “The prayer from the heart of a man right with God has much power.” Prayer can change circumstances. The story in the Bible that comes to my mind is when Elijah prayed for rain to fall in Judah after a long drought. It took him praying seven times before he saw a storm cloud. So pray for your husband– his thoughts, his heart, his relationship with God, his specific situation. And keep praying, expecting to see God do great things.
Difficult times are when your husband needs you most, and these are great ways you can be there for him.
If you enjoyed this post, check out my other posts on marriage, How to Love Your Husband in Ways He’ll Appreciate and 6 Things You Can Do to Have a Better Marriage.
Or watch this Facebook video where I talk about what I learned from reading Shaunti Feldhahn’s book, For Women Only.