" Abba, we don't always know how to love these men you have graced us with. To show them encouragement and help in a way they receive it. To speak truth to help but not coerce. Oh Lord, we want to be wives after Your own heart. Women who love quiet when they need calm witness, and with words or actions when it's best. Teach us to sense You. To search for You before we jump in. Our men Lord. Please don't let them love anything more than they love You. Not even their own comfort. Give them the desire to bless You. With how they relate to their boss, co-workers, friends, and mostly their families. Be their first thought so they can truly see what is going on inside themselves in relation to You. Help us wives to be patient. Patient to allow you to be original with our men...as You are with us. And Abba, we hurt while we wait. Wait for them to want intimacy too. Fill us Jesus. Fill us where we hollow most. You are good, and exactly what we need. Thank You that we are always loved. We bless you for that. Help us rest now. In the sweet hope you hold the men we love most. May our love testify You. Amen."
Your husband is gift. Chosen. Designed just as God wanted. He had you in mind. The completion. You and he are fit. A fit that tells a story. Always a story.
No matter how many years pass, love is still there. Because love is a person, and HE never leaves. Don't let go of vigilance. Over him. This man who butterflied your stomach on wedding day. Love him long, love him hard. Honor his name in public. Let him see your esteem. Let him see in your eyes that no one believes in him more than you. Be home to him. A place he can rest and trust. Carry his burdens safe. Don't treat his hurts lightly. The hard battles that seem will plague them forever... Be the quiet warrior. The unlikely hero...pray.
When they know we think high of them, they are empowered. When we respect them to bless The Lord, they remember us throughout their work day. They will ponder this woman who somehow endures with them... When they know its hard. They will wonder at such love... They will turn to Gods face, seeking to be the best of men. When someone believes in us, deems us worth it, our feet are given the gift of tread. We can climb mountains! Give your husband the gift of the heights! Work hard to make it easy for Him to walk upon high places with his God.
But what about me you say? What about me feeling un-pursued, misunderstood, tired, overlooked? There are miracles that live here. In this place of hard. The way of His kingdom! It's backwards. It doesn't have the taste of sensible. But oh how amazing to test it's truth... When we love first, trusting God with our hollow, we fill. We respect. We bless. We help. We pray. And God fills. My hubby told me once that when I love him wildly, he is compelled to come and get me. That he thinks about me more. That he desires to become an even better man. That is the kingdom. God's rhythm. When we choose to meet God in His design for us as wives, our hubby's are inspired to flourish well in their design as husbands. Does this mean its all up to us, or that its our fault when we struggle in our marriages? No. I believe it would be the same if husbands lived well in their roles... We wives turn and respond full and flourishing. It's Gods way. Love that is selfless always bears fruit. No matter who chooses it first.
We cannot be wives of His heart in our own grapple. It has to be God. Stay near to Jesus, and be near to your husbands heart. It's that simple. There is no greater love than laying down ones life for a friend. Greater love hath no wife than this, that she lay down her life for her husband. Lay down our agenda. Lay down our hopes. Lay down our worries. Lay down our pride. Lay down our hunger. Lay down our need. Lay down our ache. Lay down our goals. Lay down ourselves at the feet of Jesus. Only then do we see...we can live! We fill. We find content. We live well and empower. We bring hope. We help in joy. We smile in our tired. We serve genuine. We work faithful. We grapple productive. We love selfless. We see God.
Anyone who lives for another will find life. Life full.
And we will become a friend of God. (Vs. 14)
Silence the enemy's voice in your head. The one that says you won't be remembered, filled, or noticed if you love your husband with reckless abandon first. It's a lie. You cannot love as Jesus demonstrated and not fill. It isn't possible. Because when we love like that, we fellowship with God. Him. Loving through us. As we lay down our life. Us rising full and unexplainable. Love that is not of self has a story. Always a story.
His.
So today. Pull back. Ask God for new eyes. The eyes of a wife with heaven vision. Ask to be acclimated to a kingdom gloriously upside down. All beauty. All full.
You ARE loved. First and always. By God. Be at home in that love.
Miracles await.
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