Hi there and welcome to Day 29 of My 31 Days Writing Challenge. I have really enjoyed writing on a particular topic or theme for the month. It has definitely kept my writing more focused and consistent. To close out the 31 Days, I’m considering a good wife and today let’s talk about a good wife honors her husband.
A Good Wife Honors Her Husband
If you’ve been reading here, you know I enjoy looking words up in the Thesaurus. I use a Thesaurus like most people use a dictionary. So I looked up the word, Honor: appreciate, compliment, keep. Of course there were more words, the ones you would expect: admire, celebrate, praise…But I want to consider the lesser known ones I picked out from the list.
A Good Wife Appreciates Her Husband
Do you know that even if you don’t like someone, you can appreciate them? You don’t even have to know someone to appreciate them. Anything good, no matter how small can be appreciated. I can appreciate the cashier at Walmart for not putting my raw meat in the same bag as my bleach and celery. I can appreciate any good my husband does…even if it’s only that he gets dressed in the morning and doesn’t walk around naked all day long. Extreme example I know, but there may be some extremely hard marriages out there and they’ve got to start somewhere! It may only be that if not for him, we would not have our children. There is at least one thing, no matter how small or ridiculous, we can appreciate in our husbands.
It has nothing to do with them and everything to do with us. A husband may not help fold laundry, or even get his dirty laundry in the hamper, but at least there is laundry. He may have put in long hours at a thankless job to make a few bucks to be able to purchase that laundry.
Our stubbornness can keep us from appreciating anything about our husbands. Pride can keep from recognizing our husband’s contribution because we expect everything to be done and look the way we would do it or expected it done.
A Good Wife Compliments Her Husband
Everyone just wants to be recognized. Women in the home want someone to notice their contribution although so many times it’s only noticed when something is not done. Our husbands want to be recognized as well. We may be smokin’ mad at our husband, but we can recognize his sacrifice to get up with the alarm Monday through Friday to go to a place he may hate to spend his days around people he dislikes doing something he could care less about…but he does it. Thank him for it.
A Good Wife Keeps Her Husband
Now what in the world does this mean? It could be interpreted as keeping our husband from some other woman, but that’s not how I see it. To me it means to keep our husband to ourselves. And no, that is not the same thing.
What if, in the morning when our husband left for work, we offered a prayer to keep him from all harm: spiritual, physical, mental and emotional?
What if at lunch time we considered our husband’s likes or dislikes for dinner that night and kept it in mind while prepping dinner in the afternoon?
What if before bed at night we prayed our husband would get a good night’s rest so he could keep on keepin’ on the next day and the day after and the day after that?
What if we banished negative and argumentative thoughts from our mind and instead tried to keep one good thought about our husband…even if the only thing we could come up with was, “He knows how to pick a good wife.”
Being a good wife is not a reflection of who our husband is or what he does or does not do. Being a good wife is a reflection on who or what we choose to think, say or do. We may not naturally feel anything or anything good about our husband. Honestly, that’s ok…he may be feeling the same way! It’s what we choose to think about that makes all the difference.
As much as I love my Thesaurus, I love Philippians 4:8 even more.
Summing it all up, friends, I’d say you’ll do best by filling your minds and meditating on things true, noble, reputable, authentic, compelling, gracious – the best, not the worst; the beautiful, not the ugly; things to praise, not things to curse.
†Philippians 4:8 (MSG)
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Crystal Green says
These are all some really valuable and great tips worth sharing. Every wife should remember them too because you’re right even when our spouses don’t deserve our love it is our job to still give it to them.
Jenny says
Thanks Crystal. Yes unconditional love is crucial. We expect it but don’t always give it do we?