The Husband's Trophy

Again, I got to read the book of Esther in the Bible and sincerely there are loads of things to learn and share from the book. So, I will be sharing a lot from that book in my next couple of posts.  

The first chapter of the book of Esther tells us about a king named Ahasuerus (the NIV Bible version called him king Xerxes). He reigned over 127 provinces stretching from India to Cush (Esther 1:1). And so, this very powerful king decided to show off his wealth and splendor and the Bible tells us that he took 180days doing that, and then capping it up with a 7days banquet. And just to crown his show of splendor, he decided to put his beautiful wife on display. That beautiful queen was his trophy that he was very proud to show off. And just like the Bible didn't see anything wrong in that, so also do I not see anything wrong in it. The first question I would want to ask wives reading this write-up this, are you the kind of wife your husband would delight to put on display to show off to the world? 

What king Ahasuerus sought to show off in his wife was her beauty (Esther 1:11), but you would agree with me that beauty is relative. What is beautiful for me might be ugly to you. But for your husband to deem it fit to marry you, then you are beautiful to him. So, what then are you doing to sustain the beauty he saw in you that caused him to pick you amongst the many women around him to be his wife?

I attended a women's program in my church where we were taught on ways to spice up our marriages, and my pastor's wife spoke out my mind on the need for a woman to pay attention to her physical appearance. Indecent dressing is not prescribed for a covenant child of God but a beautiful appearance in modesty and decency is a must for a wife who desires to be her husband's trophy. 

But dressing isn't the only thing that a wife needs to make herself her husband's trophy. Some wives are a disdain to their husbands simply by their attitude as we read of Queen Vashti. Interestingly, God clearly instructed the wife to submit to her husband without exemptions. I totally understand the fact that King Ahasuerus had had more than enough wine and was in high spirit from too much alcohol as at the time he decided to put his wife on display, yet that was not a good enough reason for his wife who should be a woman under submission to her husband to decline his call. 

We read in Ephesians 5:22-24 and in 1 Peter 3:1-6 that wives should submit to their husbands, but God didn't put an adjective to qualify or describe the kind of husband wives should submit to. So, whether good or bad as long as he remains your husband, the instruction of God concerning your life in that marriage is to submit to him as you would do to the Lord. 

Queen Vashti would have just been a perfect trophy when you combine her outward beauty with the inner beauty of a noble wife. But she had one good attribute and lacked the other. She possessed the outward beauty but lacked the inner poise that would have qualified her as a trophy in and out. She was a beauty to behold but a disdain to her husband by her attitude. 

Every wife loves to be appreciated and praised; a wife loves to be a trophy to be displayed by her husband to the world, but this just doesn't happen by chance, as a wife you need to make it happen. A combination of prayers and Holy Spirit led actions will get you there and believe me when I say it's a sweet thing to be your husband's trophy. 

This Is How to Handle It.

Unverified information shows that rate at which we have infidelity in marriage is on the increase just as we have an increase in the rate of divorce. From discussions with various people, it appears that married women are not spared from this spate of infidelity in marriage. So just as men are been driven by lustful desires to the point of sin, so also are women.

The interesting thing I have found about this is that some married women are actually having illicit affairs with married men who are not their husbands. They have a lot of reasons they have postulated to justify this. In fact, I hear some say that he was the man they were meant to marry initially but as God will have it, fate brought them back together again and the love, attraction, and chemistry between them is so strong they can’t help themselves.

Sincerely, I am not sharing this to judge anyone but simply stating the right from the wrong. I know a lady whose husband was having an issue with another lady in his office who had a crush on him and wouldn’t let him be. To the glory of God, the wife happens to be a prayerful wife who took her marriage matters very seriously and she had been a formidable part of her husband’s progress. They had a good relationship, but interestingly the husband didn’t come home to tell his wife about the lady who was crushing on him in the office. In fact, the problem started when the husband started helping the young lady out with some personal issues she had and along the line, she began to fall in love with him yet she was also married with children.

The man didn’t want to hurt her feelings but didn’t want a relationship too. He was been polite and tried to avoid her which wasn’t working. She would find every excuse to be extra nice to the man to the point that it was becoming obvious to the other colleagues at work. In all of these, the husband only painted this lady as a friend to his wife. When he began to get harsh with the lady at work just to push her away, his male colleagues began to tell him he was been too nasty to the lady and that he should put her feelings into consideration, that it wasn’t easy for a lady to come out and bear her feelings to a man. Yet this man was happily married to another woman and the said lady was married to another man.

Then one day the man needed to carry out a medical procedure and was admitted into the hospital. His wife was by his side to help him through the process. After the medical operation was done and the man was put under observation and was recovering in the hospital, this crush lady (office colleague) came to visit him in the hospital. His wife was there by his side. Interestingly, the careless crush could not hold her emotions as she began to get unduly worried over every sigh of discomfort the man made, coupled with the uneasiness in the hospital room where the three of them (the man, his wife, and the office crush lady) were, the wife could not help but notice a sense of awkwardness around her.

She managed to hold her peace while the crush lady was around and later asked her husband if there was anything between him and the lady who had come to visit. It was at that point that the husband confessed to her that the lady had a crush on her, and he had done everything to push her away to no avail.

The wife didn’t complain, fight or say anything afterward. She began to pray hard, calling God to remembrance over the issue of her marriage and just continued to be a good wife to her husband and made sure she was there for him at every turn. She was a very nice wife before then but became nicer to him than before. Eventually, the intruding lady was transferred to another branch in another country and that was how the faithful young lady’s marriage was saved.

It is only a lazy wife who would abandon her own assignment to lust over the success of another woman’s assignment. You have the capacity to have the best husband in the world if you are ready to be the best wife in the world. Good things don’t come cheap but good things are worth working for. And when you are a good wife and there is a treat over your marriage, be calm and pray. Don't become your own undoing as a result of lack of wisdom. Rather be a better you. That is how to achieve success.

A Sacrifice For Your Wife

Marriage as the Lord has instituted it is the coming together of a man and a woman to form a single unit, to fulfill all that God has destined them to fulfill together. It’s a lifetime bonding in which the Lord puts love between them to facilitate this bonding. Marriage is a bonding with its own instructions that makes the bonding last a lifetime. So, following the instructions of the union makes the union a very beautiful one. The advantages of the bonding are enormous, but it only works for those who know the rules and follow the rules.

So much has been said to the wives as though the men need not contribute anything. But the bigger responsibility of the home belongs to the men. Now we read in Ephesians 5:25-29 that a man needs to love his wife like Christ loves the church. What a big responsibility that is when we consider the depth, height, and width of how Christ loves the church. We all know that it is the love that Christ has for the church that made him lay down his life for the church. So, to say that God is instructing the man to love his wife to a point where he is willing to give his life for hers. You will agree with me that this is huge.

This instruction seems easy when the wife is such a submissive wife and obeys her husband’s instructions to the very last detail. With such a wife the husband is very proud, and loving her for what she is investing in the marriage is not a challenge at all. A submissive wife makes loving her easy. But what of the wife who is not submissive? Does the same instruction to love apply? Unfortunately, there are no exceptions to the rule. If this love must be in the pattern in which Christ loves the church, then it must be unconditionally selfless and sacrificial.

An old classmate of mine shared a story on our class’s WhatsApp group of her visit to one of her friends who kept eulogizing herself of how she’s had to put up with her husband’s excess just for the peace and progress of her marriage. Well, the husband was not there to say otherwise. And then on another day she and her husband met with the same friend’s husband and he was also full of praises for himself of how he’s had to put up with his wife’s behavior just for the peace and progress of their marriage. And then you ask, who is putting up with who? They both feel each of them is the one making the sacrifice that is keeping the marriage together. The truth is they are both working and so their marriage is working, and they are getting the peace they have worked for. Now, it is important that we understand that we can’t get what we didn’t work for. The result of your marriage is determined by the level of work you put into it. If you seek a good wife with the qualities you desire in a wife, then you need to invest continuous prayers in her, then invest continuous love and then patiently wait for a bountiful harvest of a wonderful wife and a glorious marriage. Note that you cannot possess what you are not willing to pursue. 

Changing Your Wife to Be What You Want Her to Be.

“That woman calls you husband, do not hurt her to fulfill your fantasy.” I just found this quote on tweeter and it caught my attention and got me thinking. There are a million and one stories of husbands walking away from their marriages because of another woman they fell in love with. Some have been able to get away with it but not without their consciences dealing with them every now and then, but some have had a bag full of regrets after realizing that it’s actually not greener on the other side, and it’s a little too late to make amends.

I have written a lot of blog articles addressing the wives on the need to be a complete wife lacking nothing and to occupy their marriage and their husband’s life such that there is no room for an intruder in their marriage, but on the flip side there is the need to look the side of the husbands for redress too.

A husband is the head of the home and so he is the leader of the home. Based on God’s mandate on his life, the husband’s leadership pattern should follow after the leadership pattern of Christ Jesus. In my last post, I outlined the expectations on such leadership if it has to be in the pattern and order with which Christ led and is still leading the church. It is tagged a servant-leader style of leadership.

So, if a husband is following after the leadership style of Jesus Christ, the feelings of his wife should be a priority to him and that brings me again to the quote above which says “That woman calls you husband, do not hurt her to fulfill your fantasy.” A good husband that is so concerned about God’s appraisal over his life will not and should not hurt his wife just to fulfill his lustful fantasy.

No matter how you think about it, it is not greener on the other side. If you conclude that your wife isn’t giving you peace and as such you seek it outside of God, know for sure that the peace you seek is not found in abundance on the laps of adultery, it only comes from God. Nothing derived from sin ends in praise. What you invest in your wife determines what you get as returns from her and what you sow in your wife determines what you reap from her and the harvest comes in multiple increases of what was sown. That is how it works. It is easy to make a woman be all that you want her to be but you must be willing to sacrifice first. 

Let's Discuss the Husbands

In the course of our first Silver Lining Couple’s Clinic program we had last year, I learned more than I thought I knew about the male gender and while we think the wives need to do so much to make a marriage work, the husbands need to do a lot more. Based on the societal believes the male are the gods who must be obeyed and judging from the instructions from God as found in the Bible which states that wives must submit to their husbands as unto God, that seems to be true.

But with leadership comes a huge responsibility. The leader in Christ wasn’t One who lord it over those who followed Him, but Christ led through service. Like Pastor Myles Munroe called it then, it was a servant-leader style of leadership. So unlike what the society has made up believe in which some have convenient backed it up with scripture without considering the context holistically, the man is actually required to lead his wife in the pattern in which Christ led the church and that leadership style is known as the servant leadership style. That kind of leadership that puts those you lead before yourself. It’s the sacrificial kind of leadership. It’s very different from the master-servant; a husband-wife relationship that is playing out in the society today.

So, the leadership of the husband just like we have in the leadership of Christ, is the leadership that protects, it’s the leadership that provides, it’s the leadership that advocates, it’s the leadership that defends, it’s the leadership that listens, it’s the leadership that encourages, it's the leadership that cares, and above all it’s the leadership that loves unconditionally. I want to believe that if most wives have husband-leaders with these qualities then submitting to such a leader will not be a problem, and then a lot of marriage crisis will be averted.

So as a husband, what kind of a leader are you? Are you the Christlike leader who practices the servant-leader style of leadership or are you just the boss-master? In order to have your wife submit to you whereby you can go to sleep rest assured that your home is at peace, then you need to follow after the pattern of Christ and adopt the servant-leader style of leadership. With prayers and practice, it gets easier and more rewarding. And like my dear friend Deji Irawo would always say, its time to begin to unlearn the errors that have so far shaped humanity and relearn that which promotes.

When You Speak Marriage You Speak Unity

One of the secrets to great success in life is the power of unity. Unity is so powerful when it is maintained in marriage. Jesus said in Matthew 18:19 that if as little as two agree on anything and they ask for it from God, it will be done for them by our Father in heaven. And then we read about God saying in Genesis 11:6 that if as one people (note that plural term PEOPLE, it speaks of more than one person), speaking the same language they have begun to do this, then nothing they plan to do will be impossible for them. And so, I see impossibility crushed by the power of unity. But you might want to say that Jesus did not imply that the two must be husband and wife and I will tell you that there is no better two that can agree on anything and ask God and He will hastily answer them than the two of husband and wife whom God has joined together in flesh and spirit as one entity, and made them His own.

So to say that, the agreement of the husband and his wife in thought and mind mixed with prayers creates a lifetime of successful achievements because what they ask in agreement they get from God.

Now, the devil knows this, and because he has come only to kill, steal and destroy he ensures that the husband and the wife don't agree on anything and so they make individual requests before God and have their prayers pending because such prayers or request requires they be done in agreement. And so, we will notice that alongside a messy marriage are a messy financial life and lost opportunities. It always looks like once the home front is not smooth, it affects all other areas of the individual lives of the couples.

But as children of God, we should not be ignorant of the devil’s pranks. God has given His word; it is our duty to ensure that we make ourselves eligible for the promise of God. God has told us that if we agree and ask then we will receive, the receiving is God's doing, but the agreeing and asking is our doing. God will not force us to agree, that is our own duty to ensure. It is our responsibility to make that agreement happen and believe me, it does not come easy, but it is very possible and doable.  

Quite a number of times I have viewed things differently from my husband, but mindful of the power of unity I make effort to see things through his eyes and align with him and believe me we have achieved great things simply by the power of alignment. And the interesting thing about this is that I get to win in the long run. Because after a period of time, he will be still turn around to see things from my own perspective. Yes, sometimes it takes years for him to see it my way but with patience and a good heart I get to win it all in the long run.

I want you to keep this thought dear to you, “it pays to lose the battle just to win the war.” Conceding to the will and instructions of your husband as the Lord has instructed us as wives to submit to our husband as unto the Lord might mean that you lose your conviction momentarily, but it's only to win the love of your husband, the peace and joy of your marriage and the progress and promotion of your life. And above all it means to win the love of God as you obey Him, it means to walk in unity with your husband and have all your request before the Lord answered without delay.

I have tried it and it works. I am enjoying it and I am reaping the benefits of that which I am sowing. I might be losing the battle every now and then, but I am winning the war. 

The Lady Has Got Guts

I was discussing with a lady some weeks ago, this lady did a very remarkable thing that a lot of people will consider foolish because it takes a lot of guts to do what she did. This is what she did; she left her very high paying job to relocate with her husband and children to another location on the face of the earth far from their home base, starting life all over again from ground zero simply because she wanted to help her husband discover his dream and feel worthy of being a husband. All she took along with her was her prayer and trust in God.

Because of her high paying job, she carries more of the financial burden of her family. It was a trend she didn’t like, and she wanted it to change. When her husband requested that they move to another country in pursuit of greener pasture, it wasn’t a greener pasture for her because life was already very green for her in the land she was in. But she gave it all up because she was a wife under submission. Quite a lot of people tried to talk her out of it because she was doing fantastically well where she was. But what of her husband?

This lady recognized that her assignment in the life of her husband was in the capacity of a suitable helper and not the primary burden bearer. But one thing she did was that she prayed hard. She sought God in the quietness of her spirit. She sought the leading of the Holy Spirit and then decided to leave all and follow her husband.

The last time we spoke she told her that her husband has secured two jobs and when she sees their bank account details and receive her husband’s call demanding to know what was needed in the house so he could buy them on his way home, she felt so much joy that finally she is able to help her husband find his worth and pursue his destiny. And they are happy. They have always maintained a joint account before now but she had been the one funding the account. But now her husband is the one funding their joint account.

I totally agree that a lot of women have done similar things and have gotten their fingers burnt but that does not make it wrong. I will only encourage wives to be more prayerful as they embarked on their support mission in the lives of their husbands. Whatever you want to do in your marriage do it first because you have prayed well and have received a leading from God over and above doing it for love. Those who did it and got it wrong did it for love and that is where we have the difference. With God leading and guiding, you can never get it wrong. For this young lady, it has been from one testimony to another.