As a Wife, what is your purpose?

Good Morning, we're in another week what can we as wives do to make our families, homes, marriages even better? Lets take a look at the home....I love the saying, "Home is the heart is" I also believe "home is where we live, not at the house, at HOME!" Yes, we live in a house, BUT the house is a building, Home, are the ones who LIVE in the house!

So what makes a home? As a wife, it's the family seeing our true love. It's the children seeing you love you love the Lord, your husband. It's your children seeing your love for them. It's your husband seeing your love for the Lord and for him, and the children!

The following is taken from "God's Ideal Woman" Written by Clifford Lewis

The Stick Together Families

The stick-together families are happier by far

Than the brothers and sisters who take separate highways are.

The gladdest people living are the wholesome folks who make

A circle at the fireside that no power but death can break.

And the finest of conventions ever held beneath the sun

Are the little family gatherings when the busy day is done.

There are rich folk, there are poor folk, who imagine they are wise,

And they're very quick to shatter all the little family ties.

Each with strangers likes to wander, and with strangers likes

to play.

But it's bitterness they harvest, and it's empty joy they find.

For the children that are wisest are the stick-together kind.

There are some who seem to fancy that for gladness they

must roam.

That for smiles that are the brightest they must wander far

from home.

That the strange friend is the true friend, and they travel

far astray.

And they waste their lives in striving for a joy that's far

away.

But the gladdest sort of people, when the busy day is done,

Are the brothers and sisters who together share their fun.

It's the stick-together family that wins the joys of earth,

That hears the sweetest music and that finds the finest mirth;

It's the old home roof that shelters all the charm that life

can give;

There you find the gladdest play-ground, there the happiest

spot so live.

And O weary, wandering brother, if contentment you would

win,

Come you back unto the fireside and be comrade with your

kin.

                                                                                -Edgar Guest

So, do you as a wife make sure that your part of the home, seen by all? Your love? Your care? As a wife, mom, friend, we are to love, and do for those we love.

Tomorrow we'll look at another aspect of the Home and how we as wives are such a big part of it. Now please remember we aren't the Head of the home, but we are a very important part of the home.







As a Wife, what is your purpose?

Ephesians 5:20-22 "Giving thanks always for all things unto God and the Father in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ; Submitting yourselves one to another in the fear of God. Wives, submit yourselves unto your own husbands, as unto the Lord.

Do you thank the Lord for your husband?
Do you submit to your husband as the Bible says we should?

In submitting to our husbands and being thankful for them we need to:
1. Not correct him
2. Not laugh at him
3. Don't accept him, based on what he does.
4. Don't always think and look at what his weakness is.
5. One of the worst things I hear wives doing: DON"T compare him to other husbands!

No we are going to look at each of these things. Now I asked you do you thank the Lord for your husband? Ephesians 5:20 "Giving thanks for all things...." you know you can put in there Giving thanks for your Husband! God wants us to be thankful for all things and that includes our husbands. Let him know how thankful you are for him.

Now submission. Yea, I know you hear it all the time "Wives submit yourselves unto your husband" guess what? I'm a wife too and I know how you feel also. There are times I'm thinking WHAT? But as the wife, as a wife who wants to obey the Bible, as a wife who wants to be Prov 31 lady, I go ahead and submit. Is it easy? NO I want lie to you I'm human, I'm a woman and I'm independent! But Guess what? If my husband ask me to do something or to follow him or to go with him, I will! Who am I married to? My parents? or Him? My work? or Him? something for each of us to consider.

Now We don't need to be correcting our husbands.
Here are a few things we should avoid correcting him on:
             ~when he's telling a story, let him tell it his way. Don't make him look ignorant!
             ~When he's telling a joke. let it go....
             ~His English
             ~The way he works
             ~His appearance
We want him to be his best, but we can, in trying to help him, hurt him. So be careful as a wife how you say things and what you "correct" him on.

Laughing at your husband.
Make sure that when you laugh it's with your husband and not at him. Even though he may not show it, when you laugh at him with others it's hurting his ego. If he's laughing and your laughing with him that's being as one, so to speak.

Wife, don't base your acceptance of the man you married on what he does. Don't try to make him more spiritual, the Lord will do that. Your husband will stand before the Lord, for his responsibilities.

Don't dwell on his weakness. Did you know you when you dwell on the weakness of something or someone, you no longer look at them as you should. Maybe he doesn't pick up his dirty clothes, guess what at some point you didn't either. Maybe he smacks his food, you did also when you were little and who knows you may still do it. Maybe your husband changes channels on the tv more than anyone else you know. Guess what, you don't need to dwell on it. You especially don't need to go to your friends and say you know my husband he does this and this (using negative about him). Now if your going to praise him before others, by all means Do It.

Don't compare him to other men! You know what each man, woman, girl, boy are D-i-f-f-e-r-e-n-t!!
None of us have the same looks, same way of working or anything. Just be careful DON"T compare your husband to an  old boyfriend, best friend  husband, your pastor, your SS teacher. He is Your Husband, He is who God made him to be, He can't be changed by you!

Accept your husband for WHO he IS!!

The challenge for this wk is to Praise him more, Thank the Lord for him daily, and most importantly Submit to your husband. Do as he ask, go where he ask, follow him where he goes. Remember to do all this with a good attitude and with the Joy of the Lord.

As a Wife, what is your purpose?

Ephesians 1:6 "To the praise of the glory of his grace, wherein he hath made us accepted in the beloved."
Do you accept your husband for who is? Pretty strong question, very important though. We as wives don't always accept our husbands for who is....
Why is this? Maybe his past, maybe he hurt you, maybe trust is no longer there, so many things could be the reason one no longer accepts their husband for who he is. However, He IS your husband! You took the wedding vows and prayerfully when you said, "till death do us part" you meant. Now lets look at some things that we need to do and why we should accept the man we are married to.

Does your husband make plans for you and he? Do he plan dates or special days? Let him do this without suggestions. Our regular date night is on Tuesdays, the majority of our date nights Bill has already planned where we will go and everything. Now there are times he ask me if I would like to go to a particular restaurant. If I have a place I've wanted to go I will say something like, this place would be nice.
Now I don't know about you, but I have a way of choosing a place or dinner that Bill had for lunch. It's the craziest thing. You know though he never complains, it should be the same with us as wives. When your husband says I have planned for our date this and this, Accept it! Especially if he doesn't say, "unless you had something else in mind."

How many of you like to get gifts from your husband? I know I do!!! Accept what he gives you! Don't turn your nose up at the perfume, or say I prefer this type of flower. NO we need to accept what our husband give us.

Accept his schedule. Now this can be hard! Trust me, I'm home all day (by choice) and home school our children. There are times, I'm like, "Do you HAVE to go do this or that?" YES he does that is his schedule, he works to help feed our family, provide a place to live etc. So don't complain!!! I remind myself that his schedule is for OUR, Bill and mine, family.

Everyone handles people differently. Your husband whether in the ministry or working in the world, deals with lots of people, saved and unsaved. So, if you don't think he handles a person correctly, just accept it that, that is your husbands way of "dealing" with it.

Now this can be a touchy topic...Accept his affection towards you! YES, we are to as wives ACCEPT his affection. I won't go into details, but ladies, if you are married don't be cold to your MANS affection. It can, it has before, and it could destroy a marriage!!! I know we have our days, but you know the man whom you married does NOT deserve to me told NO. Accept your husbands affection.

Does your husband have toys? You know fishing poles, golfing, hunting, whatever his "toys" are accept them. Now the one thing (I'm going to tell on myself here) I absolutely can't stand is smelly fish!! I don't eat fish, and I DON'T don't clean them. However, after Bill and I talked we decided that if I had everything he needed on the back porch he would care for the fish outside then bring them in to freeze them and yes, he will even cook them outside, most of the time. Why did I tell you this, well we, I, need to accept the things my husband enjoys doing.

So ladies, as a wife, our purpose here is to accept our husbands. You accepted him as he was before marriage. Why change after marriage?
For richer or poorer
In sickness and health
the key phrase "Till death do us part"
Keep those vows accept the man God gave you, love him, enjoy being with him, enjoy his "toys". You will find that doing this makes your purpose as his wife will be much easier!!

What can you change in this area this wk?

As a Wife, what is your purpose?

Good evening, I'm not real sure how many lessons this will go, but as you may be thinking, she was reading another book :) Yes, I was, actually 2 books and between the 2 I want to touch on what our purpose is as a wife. You may say, but I know, I'm suppose to be here for my husband, take care of the home, take care of the children, or maybe you believe your purpose is to work out of the home, to bring in money to the home. Whatever you believe is your purpose, we are going to look into the Biblical purpose of wife.

I thought for fun I would through in this picture. This was mine and Bill's 15th wedding anniversary and I love the little sign at our feet. "Still Hitched"  I'm happy to say that Aug 24th we will be "hitched" for 20 yrs!! You know my purpose as a wife hasn't always been easy to go through with. My desire has/is to be the wife I was meant to be; To be God's ideal woman as my husbands wife; to do what God gives as a Wife's purpose. In the next day or so I will go over things that maybe you and yes I, didn't realize was part of our purpose. If you have followed any of my devo's in the past months. Let me say, One of the things that not only the books say, but the Bible and God says, Read your Bible daily, Pray without ceasing, Stay close to the Lord these are important in EVERY part of our marriages, and lives. You may not be a wife or a mom but I believe as if you will still read these post and if you will apply them to your life as a single person, or as one who could have children that you will learn and be able to apply these things to your life when the time comes.

Two of the books that I will be referring to off an on are:

God's Ideal Woman Written by Clifford Lewis

A Wife's Purpose Written by Cindy Schaap    I highly recommend both of these books to help your growth as a lady, wife and/or mom.

Genesis 2:18 "And the Lord God said, It is not good that the man should be alone; I will make him an help meet for him."

This is you and I! We were created to complete man.

"A wife's purpose is to meet her husbands needs by helping him!"

We will be looking at the ways we can help him and how we can fulfill our purpose!

Ephesians talks of how we are to submit to our husband. We will be looking into that and prayerfully answer some questions that maybe out there. In today's world the woman submitting to her husband is almost unheard of. We want as Christians to let it be known that it's not a "I have to submit" but rather "I get to submit" or maybe I submit why? "I want to" Or "I submit to my husband because God says I should and I want to obey God" So many ways people look at it.

Well, my friends it's late and I am looking forward doing this study. My prayer is that someone will see the need to submit and to follow her husband.