The Bible commands women to respect their husbands. It also commands men to love their wives. The reason for these commands is that it is not natural for women to respect their husbands or men to love their wives as they should. In other words, an effort must be made to obey these commands.
I can certainly relate to not being respected. Despite having been married for over twenty five years, my wife respects me less now than she ever has before. My opinions are always wrong. My decisions are always bad. Anything I do is always done wrong. Even any facts I mention are not correct. This makes marriage extremely difficult when one partner has such a low opinion of the other. Then she has the gall to say she loves me. How can you love someone that you do not respect?
Marriage is a difficult situation. Most successful marriages require considerable work to achieve that success. But don’t misunderstand me. I am not blaming my marital difficulties on just my wife. Like I said before, men are commanded to love their wives and I am sure that I have considerable work to do in that area.
One thing I have noticed about this lack of respect is that the feelings that result will contribute heavily to other issues. For instance, I am extremely lonely. I find myself envying other men whose wives appear to love and respect them. I suspect that this lack of respect contributes heavily to many divorces and adulterous affairs. It puts men in a position where they are vulnerable to the kindness of other women. I have to admit that I long for the early days of my marriage when my wife looked forward to seeing me come home from work to spend time with me and talk with me.
What makes matters worse is that my daughters now treat me the same way as my wife. The three of them are very close so my wife’s attitude toward me is rubbing off on them. This, of course, makes my loneliness worse. It also encourages my kids to treat their husbands the same way which is wrong.
You see, this is why God commands women to respect their husbands. According to the Bible, marriage is supposed to be a picture of the relationship between Christ and his church. My marriage is nowhere close to that picture. I doubt many are close. But this is what we should be striving for in our marital relationships.
In fairness to the women, I must mention that if a man is showing love properly to his wife it will be much easier for her to show respect for him. This means that marriage is like a coin. There are two sides and you cannot have one without the other. It takes both partners striving for the same goal of making their marriage that picture of the relationship between Christ and his church. If it is only a one sided effort then the marriage will eventually fail.
So please don’t be stubborn. Value your marriage enough to put the proper effort into loving (men) and respecting (women) your spouses.
Pete
Tags: adult, affair, Bible, Christ, church, daughter, God, husband, love, marriage, men, relationship, respect, wife, women
