“Go after your family like you go after your job.” The words struck as if being chiseled into my granite brain.

I was talking with a man I admire deeply for his sincere devotion to God and for his exceptional family. How do you get the balance right between family and work? I had asked. I often get this question and have felt inadequate to answer it, as it has been one of my own greatest struggles.

But that advice was wonderfully clarifying: “Go after your family like you go after your job.”

I do go after my job. It is always on my mind at some level. As I read and study, converse and fellowship, think and pray, I am mulling ideas for articles or lectures, pondering points and specifics, considering how to improve a publication or a class, weighing how to better employ the staff in the department. And all the while, I am petitioning God for His help in these areas.

Being the successful head of a household requires similar passion.

I have spoken to many men who, like me, naturally take a passive approach—sitting back and merely reacting to what is happening in the family. That doesn’t mean not being involved. But it is being a policeman busting crimes, or a fireman dousing flames, rather than truly leading the family as God intends.

Perhaps one of the biggest tests of leadership is not just to accept things as they are, but to imagine things as they could be. Many men do this in their jobs. Far fewer do this in their homes.

What do our families lack? Where are our families weak? Are our wives and children living up to their potential? What can we do to inspire them to achieve greater heights? With God’s help, we can accomplish a lot by pursuing answers to these questions with diligent, creative thought and disciplined study.

Seek out and take note of fresh ideas. Make your time together productive. Be alert to hidden aptitudes in your wife and children. Be open to new opportunities. Remember those activities that magnify your interaction with one another and that everyone enjoys. Take mental notes of negative patterns in your family’s conduct—bickering, laziness, sloppiness, wasted time. Keep a record of ideas you’d like to implement, things you’d like to change, and review it somewhat frequently.

Most important, pray often—actively—in detail—with zeal—to keep God involved in all of these things.

“Go after your family like you go after your job.”

Perhaps this seems overwhelming. When I go home I just want to relax, we may say. I don’t have the energy to be The Big Idea Daddy.

There is truth to that. Going after anything is more difficult than just going along. And we do need some down time in our family time.

But consider God’s instruction to husbands and fathers—who, after all, represent Him to their individual families—and you quickly see that He expects a proactive, passionate effort. For our marriage, He instructs, “Husbands, love your wives, even as Christ also loved the church, and gave himself for it” (Ephesians 5:25). To fathers, He says, “[T]hou shalt teach [God’s words] diligently unto thy children, and shalt talk of them when thou sittest in thine house, and when thou walkest by the way, and when thou liest down, and when thou risest up” (Deuteronomy 6:7).

We can’t accidentally obey these commands. We have to go after them.

Down time must not completely consume family time. Our personal interests must not always supersede our family’s interests—not if we are to follow God’s instruction.

The man I spoke with said, “You can tell the difference between when you’re going after them and when you’re not.” I have found that to be true. There is a bright line between when I’m aware of my family’s needs and actively working to fulfill them, and when I’m preoccupied with other things. I can tell when I’m leading, and when I’m merely reacting.

“Go after your family like you go after your job.” I received that choice advice after hearing an inspired message about the spiritual benefits of offensive warfare. And that is exactly the mindset a man needs.

As Nehemiah 4:14 says, “[R]emember the Lord, which is great and terrible, and fight for your brethren, your sons, and your daughters, your wives, and your houses.” God is great and terrible—He will look after our families—He will guide, nurture and protect. But He will not do this alone. We also must fight for them!

We need a battle plan for defending our families, for keeping Satan’s influence out and putting God’s influence in. We need to fight our own passivity, and approach our duty with energy, drive and creativity.

Bring some passion to the job—the critical career—of leading your family to a productive, enriching, satisfying and fun life of purpose. Go after your family.