Daily Fuel For Christian Men

Monday, February 11, at Cowboys Stadium in Arlington, Texas, one of our modern-day warriors and heroes was memorialized after being gunned down by someone he was trying to help. Chris Kyle, our most deadly military sniper in U.S. history, was killed February 2 at a gun range, while attempting to reach out to a struggling veteran.

Chris had retired from the Navy SEALs as a sniper after 160 confirmed kills from a distance of up to 2100 feet. Iraqi insurgents nicknamed him “the devil,” and placed a bounty on his head. In his best-selling book, “American Sniper,” he said, “I had to do it to protect the Marines. You want to lose your own guys or would you rather take one of them out?”

His success as a Navy SEAL will forever be in the record books, but I want to add an even greater success story to his legacy, one which we should all aspire to. At his memorial service before thousands of people, his wife, Taya, shared these words: “I am now, and always will be, the wife of a man who was a warrior both on and off the battlefield.” Referring to Chris, she said, “There isn’t enough time to tell you everything you mean to me and everything you taught me. I know you had no idea you were teaching me, but there is something only God and I have known for a long time. He worked through you to make me into the woman I am supposed to be.”

Men, I have never heard a better job description for a Christian husband than her words.

My mentor used to say, “You can tell the character of a man in his wife’s eyes.” That’s a telltale sign with 100% accuracy. For Chris Kyle, his character must have been in Biblical proportions, based on the reflection of him that will forever be in Taya’s eyes. He may be gone, but what he poured into her will live on.

Men, loving our wives as Christ loves the church will never be easy or simple, but it is an expectation from the Father Himself that He believes we are capable of through Him. If any of us imagine our wives speaking at our memorial service and aren’t pleased with the thought of what might come out, Chris Kyle would tell you it’s not too late to change. And God has the plan for exactly what to do to see it begin to become reality.

Thank God for great American heroes like Chris Kyle, and thank God for godly husbands who love their wives. Every day.

Husbands, you must love your wives so deeply, purely, and sacrificially that we can understand it only when we compare it to the love the Anointed One has for His bride, the church. We know He gave Himself up completely to make her His own, washing her clean of all her impurity with water and the powerful presence of His word. —Ephesians 5:25 (Voice)

Image courtesy of:  Navytimes.com