In the last few months, God has really been working on me in my wife-heart department.
“It’s been a blast,” said this wife never.
But seriously. It’s been hard. But really, really, REALLY good. I’ve learned a lot about myself. The good parts of my heart. And the no-so-legit parts of my heart.
I feel like it’s going to be a very transformative year for me in a variety of ways– health/fitness, boundaries in various areas of my life, and as you probably guessed, my marriage.
Without getting into all the details, God brought to our attention that while Brandon and I have a comparably “good” marriage, with His help, we can take it from good to great…
And then great to Godly. (Eventually. Look us up on our 50th Wedding Anniversary.)
One of the big revelations God showed me one morning in my prayer closet were two contrasting aspects of being a wife.
He changed being a wife into more of an action experience. The Mightiest Almighty, who created the heavens and the earth, changed wife from a noun to a verb.
To “Wife” is now all about action… Starting with my heart.
The contrasting ideas he revealed to me included How to “Wife” and how NOT to wife. Check out the following:
To summarize, He gave me a very clear command…
BE HIS WIFE…
*Partner
*Friend
*Follower
*Confidante
*Lover
*Supporter
*Cheerleader
*Helpmate
*Sister in Christ
*Teammate
NOT HIS…
*Leader
*Boss
*Coach
*Mommy
*Planner
*Judge
*Counselor
*Pastor
I will just let that sink in for a second…
Yep. Perhaps it’s a wee bit convicting?
It sure was for me.
This list was not easy for me to see, because honestly I was living a LARGE majority of my time in the second section… I was not being obedient to what God had called me to as a wife.
Instead, I was taking on roles that were not mine. And it was throwing our marriage dynamic out of whack. (Thanks for that, Satan. #JerkFace)
Since that time, I have continually (repeatedly? nearly constantly?) asked the Lord to show me how to spend ALL my time in the first section of the command.
I don’t get it right all the time. But I feel like my heart is at least headed in the right direction.
Which is great news– because God doesn’t expect perfection from us, just progress.
Readers, what do you think of this list? If you are wife, where do you think you are spending most of your time? Dudes that are tuning in, what are your thoughts? Anything I forgot? Join in and leave a comment.
As hard as it is, I am very encouraged that God is working on me in this heart-department. We are seeing such incredible growth in our marriage relationship… and it’s all because God changed my role from a simple noun to a verb.
Moved in Christ,
“A wife of noble character who can find?
She is worth far more than rubies.
Her husband has full confidence in her
and lacks nothing of value.
She brings him good, not harm,
all the days of her life.”
~Proverbs 31:10-12
