I was looking into the traffic on the blog last night, and discovered a very interesting trend: other than the title of this blog ("bread alive"), there are a few more phrases that are most searched for when someone comes to this site from a search engine, like Google. "Bread alive" is the top phrase.  The next five in the "Top 5" are:

2) a husband's priorities
3) husbands and god
4) priorities of good husband
5) what is a good husband

I certainly don't want to restrict this blog to those topics, but those are also certainly at the core of what this is about. In addition, I don't want to try to steal away traffic from a good number of other blogs that I love and frequent that are also focused on these topics, so I'll note them below and link to them, in case you're interested.

However, I thought it would be good to try to wrap these specific topics (in general) into a post.

So let's think, for a moment, about a husband's priorities, husbands and God, priorities of a good husband, and what makes a good husband.

Here's my take on it, as a husband to a beautiful and loving wife of just over 4 years and father of two wonderful sons...

I think that the phrase #3 above (husbands and God) is the key.

To me, keeping my relationship with God at the top of my list, staying focused on the reward of eternal life and the challenging call of Christian discipleship, and trying to live as God has set forth in the natural order are the cornerstone of being a good husband. Without the anchor of Christ as an example and friend, it'd be hard to visualize the kind of self-sacrificing love that I need to have for my wife in order to be "a good husband."  I could try, but I'm come short of the ultimate "measure" of success at being a good husband.

So being a husband with God is at the core of the rest in my book, and is the #1 priority of a good husband.

After that - and this is the hard part - is to prioritize my wife (first) and my kids (next) in my life. Out of my love for God flows the love for my wife, with whom I promised my love and devotion for our entire lives in front of God, family, friends, and community. Our covenant is one that we see the example of in God, and that we both have an equal share in working to keep a reality in our lives.

So to me, being a "good husband" is keeping these priorities in life:
1) God
2) Wife
3) Kids and family

Beyond that, everything else falls into its logical place. But those three always have to be the top three, in that order.

It'd almost be silly to try to quantify the rest of the "actions" that make a good husband, since they are actions that fall out of trying to live out the priorities listed above.

That's my take, at least, on what makes a good husband and what my priorities are.

It's certainly not easy. It's tempting to give in to other callings and even addictions - the desire to work harder for more material goods and sacrifice time with my wife and kids; the desire to spend a bit more time online at night accomplishing something else for myself; the desire to be selfish and self-focused in my actions.

But the goal post is there... and yard by yard, inch by inch, I try to at least get a first down each day and occasionally reach that goal.

That said, here are some bloggers that at this point are much better at consistently maintaining this topic than I am:

1) A Good Husband
2) Catholic Dads
3) The Dads Center
4) The Man Page
5) IAmHusband.com
6) WifeAdvice.com (for good humor)