It Really IS All About God

I haven't study any this week out of the book on loving your husband, so in the quiet of this morning I opened up to lesson 5.."Let the Wife....Respect Her Husband"

Okay. I'm good. I will breeze through this lesson. I respect my husband. He is such a patient, loving man. He is a great provider for our family. Incredibly talented. Loves our Savior. Respected in the church. I am blessed and I respect this man...right?

Let me share what I've learned in Part A of lesson 5.

"Let the wife see that she respects and reverences her husband--that she notices him, regards him, honors him, prefers him, venerates and esteems him; and that she defers to him, praises him, and loves and admires him exceedingly." Ephesians 5:33 AMP

Do I notice him and what he does for our family? Yes.

Do I regard him? Had to get the exact meaning on regard: To think highly of. Yes I do..although I'm not sure he knows that all of the time.

Do I honor him? He probably doesn't think so all of the time...

Prefer him? Oh you betcha!!!

Venerate and esteem him? Got to look up venerate: To regard or treat with reverence. Ummm..not always.

Defers to him? Oh boy.....getting in deep here. I try, but between you and me....ummm not like I should.

Praises him? I do. Especially to others...but do I give praise to him? Not nearly like I should.

Love and admire him? Yes. I think he's incredible!! He never ceases to amaze me with the things he is able to do!!

Then I make my way over to 1 Peter 3: 1-4, which tells me that I am to be pure and reverent, not focused on outward beauty BUT having a quiet and gentle spirit...oh no......"which is so precious to the Lord".

Just when you think you're doing okay, what you're suppose to be doing, you are confronted with the Word of God and (thankfully) reality sets in.

I really do want to be the wife that God wants me to be. I want my marriage to be the best it can be and an awesome example to my kids of what they need in their marriage.

Let me say again, that I really do have a great relationship with my husband. He is my best friend and I enjoy spending time with him. But I want to have the relationship with him that GOD wants me to have, thus this study.

So..in order to be precious to the Lord...which I absolutely want, I am to have a quiet, gentle spirit. Folks, that's not me.

I am typically a shy person. If you meet me in the grocery store line, I'll talk you ear off. Why? Cause I'll probably never see you again, therefore I can be myself and not worry about you judging me. BUT, if I meet you in a group setting, I'm not going to say too much. After all, I'd rather just keep my mouth shut and let you believe I'm painfully shy then open it and prove myself a fool. (Even though I know I'm not a fool..in my mind, why take chances...)

At home though, it's a different story. I can be loud and mouthy, especially when it's only my family around or if I think that I have to get my point across because my idea is the best idea. In doing that, my motives are not pure nor is my spirit quiet or gentle..which means I'm not so precious to the Lord because He is disappointed that I've ignored His Word....What I'm learning in this study is, that it goes so much deeper than pleasing my man....it boils down to pleasing my God. I guess in our carnal mind, in our worldly world, we have been trained to accept the fact that at times we are going to fail somebody, we are not going to please everybody all of the time so why try. But when you look up and realize that everything we do is a reflection of our Father and what He desires in our life...it puts things in a whole new perspective.

I hope you're not struggling with the things I do, I hope you're stronger and more stable than I am. I do hope though that, like me, you're taking a look at your relationship with your husband from a different angle and hopefully together we will create rock-solid, God based marriages that will be blessed and examples to all around us.

Blessings.......