Marriage Monday:  Edition 4 

This week’s Marriage Monday is being hosted by Lynn at Unequal Marriage.  If you haven’t read her blog, you should check it out!  She is incredibly insightful and wise!

This week’s topic is about every Christian woman’s call to excellence where her relationship with her husband is concerned.  I’m going to use a quote from Lynn’s entry because I found it to be spot on with the heart of this week’s topic.

“God has called every Christian wife to His excellence! Any flower can bloom when it is tended by God’s hand. A wife’s responsibility is to learn to put her confidence in the faithfulness of God and His word—to do what He says. She can become what He wants her to become if she does what He wants her to do. There is no other way.”–Martha Peace

As a faithful Christian wife, I know that I do try to improve my relationship with my husband and my relationship with God on a daily basis.  The quote by Martha Peace makes so much sense to me, which is why I decided to include it as well on my blog.  We must love our spouse as God loves us.  We cannot begin to truly love our spouse until we understand what God wants.

Another book I adore (this is of the non-Christian genre…. But talks about marriage and spirituality) is The Proper Care and Feeding of Husbands by Dr. Laura Schlessinger.  I am not a huge Dr. Laura fan (Go Dr. Phil!).  However, her books (at least this one) make sense.  In her book, The Proper Care and Feeding of Husbands, Dr. Laura gives insight into what women do wrong with their men.  For one, she states that every woman should know “what kind of animal she has brought home”.  In simpler terms:  know and understand your husband.

Sometimes, I think we women have a tendency to wish our husbands would act a certain way, when in fact, they never have. 

A good example:

My brother (who is currently living with D and I), made a good analytical remark about where he sees me going wrong in handling D. 

M:

You know, you really give D a hard time sometimes.

Me:

Well, sometimes I don’t think he loves me!  He NEVER compliments me and he always says rude things!

M:

He does compliment you, you just don’t see it.  You dwell on the negative.

Me:

But, seriously, how else am I supposed to take it? 

M: 

K, he’s always been like that.  ALWAYS.

Me:

I guess

M:

He’s more like dad than you realize.  He’s not the romantic openly-affectionate guy.  He’s the guy that will fix your car to show you he loves you rather than buy you flowers.  That’s D, man.

Wow.  How could I have forgotten what kind of animal I had brought home?  How could I have down-played and pushed aside all of the wonderful things that D, does do for me?  Why do I always focus on the negative aspects?  He’ll say something rude and I latch onto the rude comment.  It overshadows anything good that he might say/do for the rest of the day.

I know that I need to trust that God will lead me to do right by my husband.  I’m not the awful wife I make myself out to be in my blog, but I have a very real view of my actions.  I’ve never been one to mince words.  I am what I am just as D is what he is.  I need to be more mindful of my words and actions.  I also need to realize that my issues are not always his issues and vice versa.  Sometimes, we take on one another’s emotions for the day.  It’s crazy and weird but it happens.  If he is depressed, then I get depressed and vice versa.

Going along with this week’s marriage theme, I am going to take the time to understand my husband this week and to listen to God’s message about where he wants to lead me as a wife.  I need to pray for excellence.