The one flesh we become is a new creation far more resourceful, gifted and potentially wise than the man and woman apart from one another. C.S. Lewis commented that Paul's admonition for husbands to love their wives as Christ loves the church ought to strike fear into every husband's heart. What may look attractively heroic turns out to be an invitation to crucifixion. Making such decisions becomes the humble means by which men can begin to heed Paul's daunting admonition. Love demands sacrifice.
Love also calls husbands to care about their family's spiritual welfare.
He should care about what's happening in his wife's spiritual pilgrimage and in those of his children. He needs to lead in establishing the importance of the family's relationship with God. All of this is little more than Christian Marriage 101. But it's a vision of marriage totally alien to secular people who understand every human relationship through the lens of democratic polity. They only see marriage as a means to their own personal ends, and when it ceases to further these, they bail out.