Note: Today’s post is part of the Write 31 Days challenge. You can find the introduction and links to the posts in this series right here.

If your children knew nothing about Daddy other than what you say about him in front of them, what would their opinion of him be? Do you tell them about his hard work ethic? Do you point out the many ways in which he serves your family? Do you talk with them about fun little ways to show him how much you appreciate him?

Or do they overhear you telling a girlfriend all the ways you’re frustrated with him? Do you grumble about him under your breath? Do you nag him in front of them when he’s home?

Most of us probably do a bit of both. But today’s assignment is to honor him in front of your kids, a habit that will take time to develop.

Just like in our assignment to develop respect for him, we’re not trying to cover up, make excuses for, or gloss over his sin. There may be a time for some families when your children have to know about a poor decision that your spouse makes. That’s not what we’re talking about here. What we’re trying to do is avoid falling into the trap of gossiping about him in front of our little ones.

A strong, healthy marriage is one of the greatest blessings we can give to our children, and one way we can help facilitate this is to speak graciously about our husbands in front of our kids.

(I need to add a caveat here: It’s true that a great marriage is only possible with the Lord’s help and where both spouses are willing to work on the relationship, and I don’t want to lay an undue burden on your shoulders by suggesting that you simply need to tweak a few things on your end to see fabulous results. I also don’t want to suggest that rough patches are all your fault and that you’re solely responsible for fixing them.)

If you’re already in the habit of speaking well of your husband in front of your kids, keep up the great work! If this is an area of struggle for you, now is the perfect time to begin praying about and working on making changes. While most of us will need to continue working on this for the rest of our lives, we can all improve through prayer, studying Scripture, and asking others to keep us accountable.

Let’s choose to honor him in front of the kids and reap the blessings that come from doing so!

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