Near the end of the week, I share several things brimming from my reading, study, and musings throughout the week.

I share only what I think will be helpful and worth thinking about, so you have my promise that there will be something here worth your time.

Religious Husbands Do More Housework

A friend recently sent me this interesting study from the journal Social Compass that seeks to identify the sort of men more likely to help out with domestic chores. It’s an old article (three years old), but new to me. Maybe it will be new to you as well.

The gist is that there’s a clear connection between domestic chores and a man’s religiosity: the more religious a man is, the more likely he is to help his wife around the house.

Are you surprised? Apparently many people were, but if we’re talking about Christian men, this should have been no surprise. The Bible’s ethics of marriage and family life clearly prioritizes serving, sacrificial love which boils down to such practicalities as sweeping the floor, scrubbing the dishes, and helping the kids brush their teeth. 

It’s too bad that people were surprised by this. Many people wrongly caricature conservative Christian men as holding to view of marriage in which the man, as “head” of the home, is the boss, and the wife is the servant. Picture a man cooly lounging in his easy chair, reading the newspaper, while the greasy-haired apron-wearing wife hushes the children and brings him his slippers and a slice of pie—and that’s how many people view a conservative Christian marriage.

Maybe this study will help put that false narrative to rest. Those who trust and follow Jesus are committed to imitating Jesus, who not only taught servanthood, but also modeled servanthood. Men who follow Jesus seek to serve their wives like Jesus served—in practical, tangible, and helpful ways.

But there’s a twist! The report states that “men who attended religious services monthly did less housework than men who never attended, plus that both sporadic and occasional attenders were less likely to share in traditional female tasks” (emphasis mine). I have my theories about why that’s the case, but I’ll keep that theory to myself—for now.

Check out the study on religious husbands and chores here.

Read Old Books. But Read New Books Too.

Christianity Today’s January/February print issue ran an article by Sara White on the value of reading new books.

I read a lot, but tend to care little for contemporary literature, especially novels. I think it’s because I have time trust issues: I don’t easily trust an author with my time and energy unless many other people, over the ages, have trusted them and found them worthy.

White’s article chastened me. That very day, I put a couple contemporary novels on hold at my local library—ironically, the title of one is . . . Trust.

“Christians are comfortable with the classics,” White writes, “But contemporary literature can lead us to truth too.”

Pastoring a Small Church While Parenting Children with Special Needs

My friend Eric Brown is a pastor and dad of children with special needs. His article, posted this past week on 9Marks moved and encouraged me. You may not be a pastor or have children with special needs, but this article will encourage you by inviting you to reflect on the goodness of our Savior-King Jesus.

Eric writes,

“We are broken people in need of the gifts of a tender Savior. People will see our failures as parents, my failures as a pastor, my inability to be all things to all people. They will learn we are more fragile than we’d like to be, more worn-down by life and ministry than we care to admit, less able to have normal times of family worship than we ever would have imagined. But we keep trying. We put one foot in front of the other. We trust the goodness of our Sovereign King. And we keep resurrection hope at the forefront of our minds.”

Read Eric’s article here.

The Godlier You Are, the More You Need to Repent

This past Wednesday, I led a prayer meeting at our church using Psalm 32:6 as a way to kindle our prayers. “Therefore let everyone who is godly offer prayer to you at a time when you may be found.” 

The “godly” here aren’t people who are perfect; rather, they are people who have realized that they have sinned and need forgiveness.

Commenting on this psalm, John Calvin writes,

The more eminently that anyone excels in holiness, the farther he feels himself from perfect righteousness, and the more clearly he perceives that he can trust in nothing but the mercy of God alone. Hence it appears, that those are grossly mistaken who conceive that the pardon of sin is necessary only to the beginning of righteousness. As believers are every day involved in many faults, it will profit them nothing that they have once entered the way of righteousness, unless the same grace which brought them into it accompany them to the last step of their lives.

Did you read that carefully enough? Neither did I the first time. Read it carefully again, and feel the conviction and joy.

We need God’s saving grace, not only for the initial moment of our salvation, but also for every single moment of our lives.