As we begin walking through the four foundational shepherding principles of knowing, leading, protecting, and providing, it is important to recognize that each principle represents a human need. The concept of knowing, for example, speaks to the fundamental need for relationship and is foundational to all the rest. After all, how can you effectively lead your wife and children if you do not know them? In chapter one, Witmer urges husbands to understand marriage in the comprehensive biblical sense of physical, spiritual, and emotional oneness.
“How can you effectively lead your wife and children if you do not know them?”
Here are a few questions husbands to consider: Do you have an appreciation for the ways in which your wife’s strengths counterbalance your weaknesses? For the ways your strengths complement hers (30)? Is it clear to your wife that your relationship with her is the most important relationship to you (31)? Talk to your wife and ask for her assessment and how you could both improve in these areas.