Duties New and Old

On March 19th my son, Gus Howard Hebert, was born. Thanks for all of your well-wishes and congratulations. (Above is a photo of the little booger.)

My wife, Natalie, and I have been adjusting to our new family life. For almost nine years we have lived happily married and on our own. A year ago we acquired our dog, Maeby, and now we have a full-fledged family with a brand new little baby. In the last year we’ve gone from freewheeling to responsibility-laden.

These new events have led me to think more carefully about my role as husband. Natalie and I try to live by Jesus’ two commands found in Matthew 22.37–40:

1. Love God.
2. Love others.

We always talk about how we consider our spouse to be our “first other”; when it comes to loving others, the first person on my list should be Natalie. Even with the dog and the baby, I don’t think this has changed. Natalie is still my primary responsibility. If I’m loving God and loving her, then my love for little Gus (and Maeby!) will take care of itself; our love will spill over and nourish him.

I don’t know what marriage with children really looks like. But I do know that this is my primary duty:

“Husbands, love your wives, as Christ loved the church and gave himself up for her…” (Eph. 5.25)

Tagged as: bible, children, Christianity, duty, ephesians, family, fatherhood, marriage, responsibility