by David Scott Robertson
In my lifetime I have met and appreciated many influential women in my world.
My mother, my grandmother, Sunday school teachers, and other sisters and female friends in the Lord have all made an indelible mark on my life.
But none have influenced me more than one special woman.
I met Monica at church sixteen years ago.
As our Christian friendship took an unexpected romantic turn,
I suddenly discovered that I could live without this woman, but I didn’t want to.
So I asked the Lord if I could have her as my wife.
Both He and she said “yes.”
Now I’m learning what it means to be a husband who loves his wife as Christ loves the church and gave Himself for her.
I’m beginning to understand why the Bible says in 1 Corinthians 11:7 that “…the woman is the glory of man.”
You see, I have come to a place in my marriage where I admire my wife.
She gave birth to our beautiful daughter, Abigail Grace.
She taught my child to read.
She prays over our family as a watchman on the wall.
She is a woman of integrity whose word is her bond.
She fears the Lord and obeys His commands and does those things that are pleasing in His sight.
She has a sense of humor – (after all she married me).
She loves God far more than me – and I wouldn’t have it any other way.
Her world revolves around her faith in Jesus and the Bible is her favorite book.
She has a gift of wisdom and many come to her for counsel – including myself.
For these and a thousand other reasons, I have come to a place in my marriage where I admire my wife.
I purpose in my heart to tell her more often those words every woman loves to hear from her husband: “Honey, I was wrong and you were right.”
Depending upon how she’s treating me at the time, I joke with her about being a “Proverbs 31 wife.” If she’s yelled at me for leaving my clothes on the floor, “I tell her today she’s a Proverbs 18 wife” or if she nags a little too much I quip that today she’s acting like a “Proverbs 27 wife.”
But the truth of the matter is, to me, my imperfect wife who is perfect for me, captures the essence of the ideal wife described in Proverbs 31 when God’s Word says:
"Many women do noble things, but you surpass them all. Charm is deceptive, and beauty is fleeting; but a woman who fears the LORD is to be praised” (Proverbs 31:29-30 NIV).
DSR
2/8/03