H. Page Williams wrote a book called Do Yourself a Favor: Love Your Wife. I wish there were some way to make it required reading for church membership.
In it he said, "I asked one wife what it was that her husband was doing that caused her to want to leave him, and her reply was ’Nothing.’ Frequently, it is what men fail to do as heads of the home that gets the family all messed up, rather than what they do.
"One reason men have lost the respect of their families is because they have become spectators in the family situation. I asked one little boy what his father did, trying to learn what his occupation was, and the boy replied, ’He watches.’
"I asked, ’You mean that he is a night watchman?’ ’Oh, no,’ the little boy exclaimed, ’he just watches.’ ’Well, what does he watch,?’ I asked. ’I don’t know if I can tell you everything,’ he continued, but I can name a few things.’ ’Well, tell me,’ I replied.
"’He watches TV, he watches Mom do the housework, he watches for the paperboy, he watches the weather, and I think he watches girls, too,’ he said with an impish grin. ’He watches the stock market, football games, all the sports; he watches mother spank us, and he watches us do our homework.
"’He watches us leave to go to church and PTA and shopping.
He watches my brother mow the lawn, and he watches me rake. He watches my sister clean up the dirty dishes, and he watches me wash the dog.
"’He watches Mom write letters, and he watches me play with my dog.
He watches Mom pay the bills. He watches me a lot - but mainly he just watches,’ said the little fellow with a note of sadness in his voice." Not righteous; not rightly related.
At one point, when I reorganized my library and got it into alphabetical order by subjects and authors and titles, I counted thirty books on marriage and the family.