Prayers and Wives

Chuckle: "You shouldn't criticize your wife's judgment -- look who she married."

Quote: "Marriage is not finding the person whom you can live with, but finding that person you cannot live without." --Howard Hendricks

PRAYERS AND WIVES (Loving husbands make loving fathers)

". . ., you husbands must give honor to your wives. Treat her with understanding as you live together. She may be weaker (physically) than you are, but she is your equal partner in God's gift of new life. If you don't treat her as you should, your prayers will not be heard" (I Peter 3:7 NLT).

If you are a husband, I hope you see your wife as the God-given treasure that she is and treat her accordingly. In Scripture, there are numerous passages that teach husbands to treat their wives with love, honor, respect and kindness. "Husbands, love your wives, just as Christ loved the church, and gave himself for her . . . Husbands ought to love their wives as their own bodies. He who loves his wife loves himself . . . , and each wife must respect her husband" (Ephesians 5:25, 28, 33 NIV).

At the time of this writing by the apostles Peter and Paul, women were often treated as property and were mistreated and abused. 2000 years later, we still hear of husbands mistreating their wives in horrible and cruel ways. The number of battered and abused wives is staggering in our society. Christian husbands have a responsibility not only to our wives but to God to treat our wives with love and respect. You should be sensitive to her needs, and relate to her with courtesy, kindness, consideration, insight, and tact. Otherwise, God will not hear your prayers.

Let's address this concept with this question: Have you ever tried to pray when you have treated your wife unkindly and were angry with her? While in such a state of mind, I suspect praying is the last thing you feel like doing. But if you try to pray, you probably feel as if your prayers are bouncing off the ceiling and going nowhere. If you don't feel like praying, it's not surprising that God doesn't feel like listening. For our worship through prayer to be acceptable to God, we must live in harmonious relationships with others, especially our wives. Life is short and the years husbands and wives have together are extremely precious. Let's treat our wives in such a way that we will not experience regret and guilt later on.

Thomas Carlyle paid many pathetic post-mortem tributes to his deceased wife, whom he sometimes neglected in life. In his diary there is what has been called the saddest sentence in English literature. Carlyle wrote: "Oh, that I had you yet for five minutes by my side that I might tell you all."

Although this message has been primarily for husbands, you wives are not off the hook. Scripture teaches that wives are to love and respect their husbands, as well. In a home where both the husband and wife genuinely love each other, value each other as God's special gifts, and treat each other with respect, children can grow up with an understanding of wholesome husband and wife relationships.

Love, Jerry & Dotse