The Love of a Husband, God’s Gift
By Barbara Parentini
Also available as a podcast at: http://thelife.com/blogs/experience/kindle/2008/06/15/the-love-of-a-husband-gods-gift/
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“Husbands, love your wives, just as Christ also loved the church and gave Himself for her …” Ephesians 5:25, NKJV
Recently, I heard a friend say, “I don’t need a partner, I just need another paycheck!” I was saddened to hear her words because our perceptions couldn’t be further apart. I knew that I needed my husband like the air I breathed. He was my gift, and his value far surpassed financial measure.
I’ve not always lived in marital bliss. Many years ago, I’d been wounded in a relationship by a man who abandoned our marriage after more than ten years. I never thought I would love again, and certainly never marry, but God had His plans for a good-natured bachelor just waiting to be appreciated. I am grateful for the plans of hope that He held for me, too.
I often see the love of Christ reflected through my husband’s words and deeds each day. When I am feeling overwhelmed by the world and need to retreat, I can lean on his open arms for comfort and depend on his natural instincts to protect me. His strong presence offers reassurance when I’m fearful and lonely. When I’ve lost my footing, he is there to brace and shield me against the raging winds of life. And when no one seems to understand, he listens and holds my hand. The gentleman that he is, he’s been known to kiss my hand some mornings.
I knew what my husband was worth to my life, and his value was far greater than what could be measured in dollars and cents. How much is extravagant, forgiving love, and years of devotion worth? A husband who loves God and his wife is worth more than gold. Yes, he brings home a paycheck which provides food, clothing, and shelter; but, I don’t need just a paycheck, I need my husband at my side.
I trust someday that my friend will realize a man’s value in her life. As for me, I thank God for a husband whose eyes light up when I come into view, and for the joy of living with a man I adore. Priceless.
Question: Husbands, what does it mean when Paul exhorts you to “love your wives, just as Christ also loved the church and gave Himself for her”?
About this Author: http://thelife.com/experience/devotionalformen/authors/barbara-parentini/
i envy you barbara, my son and i have been abandoned by my ex-husband two years ago now. he met a younger woman, ten years younger to be exact (my ex and i are now 40). and i’m running out of time on finding a loving and God fearing man like your husband. so i just wish you and your husband more blessed years together.
You are indeed highly favoured amongst women. Thank you Barbara for witnessing to the fact that besides Christ in her life, the next best thing a woman can ask for is a man who knows, loves and has faith in God and who loves her deeply as well. My prayer is that I find (or be found by) such a one and spend the rest of my life with him.
May you be blessed.
Congratulations on your marriage and on a beautifully written piece. God has blessed you indeed, he has blessed all of us. It was a great joy to read how your view and God’s view of marriage intersect. Thanks for sharing.
Thank you, Barbara, for reminding us of the gift God gives us in godly husbands. I wouldn’t trade mine for all the paychecks in the world!
Blessings,
Vonda
Thank you for these words of wisdom. Please prayfor my 38 year old daughter,Angie, who is divorced and would love to have a godly spouse to serve God with . Thank you .
Blessings
Sue
Dear Friends,
The subject raised by Barbara P., her friend, you Stevie and Lorena are very crucial for the present generation and the generation to come? Getting Married,Divorce For Lack of Marriageable Bliss, Re-Marrying,Living Without The Legal Bond of A Marriage and Not Getting A Spouse are the ways we humankind choose to live a life on this Universal World? Is this really what we are created for? Yes should be the right answer, but a No could also follow our Yes!Because we are greatly responsible for our own choice and final decision, whether a right or a wrong choice the marriage bond is binding us to a life long partnership that is what we agree when we enter the contract and bond of a marriage.After our marriage anything that is lacking for our marriage bliss is the prize we were prepared to pay when seeking a legal marriage!We are not God, because we cannot read the inner feelings and the feeling to come of any individual humankind. We have always a room to change for the bad or remain for the good? When we do have a change in feelings, even of our marriage bliss feelings there is really no excuse to choose the easy way out by discarding our marriage contract or bond.Because marriage is a holy and legal institution willingly entered into and agreed to keep in tact, until death! What is put together no humankind as a right to put a sunder, especially when the marriage is consummated, and if there are children in the marriage, its compliance is even more greater, because our new responsibilities towards the young citizens of our nation is a constitutional right for us to protect and nature as responsible parents.If we neglect this responsibilities the state need to protect this dissolution at all cost.
Dear friends, please do not be irresponsible in rushing into a marriage. Consider the responsibilities and the repercussions that will follow a marriage contract or bond. Do you know that we are married for 52 years and my wife had a stroke and is now wheel-chair bound and my love is still the same as we first fell in love at first sight.We now, have three sons, a daughter and seven grand-children. In 2006 my eldest son, at the age of 49 years died married, but had no children after eighteen years of marriage.My daughter in-law is still living alone with her mother and siblings.
God Bless You All!
Francis Andrew
I am single, never has a man loved me enough to marry me, in the world I took “love” as it was offered, didn’t matter to me if he was married, commitment phobic, whatever. I’ve been saved for 7 years, I am loved deeply, completely by Jesus and although I would like a husband if he is not like yours I rather be alone, I’ll just get a second job.
I congratulate you on finding such a fine Husband, and all that you say is true. I`m sure if your friend found a partner like you have, she would not have said the things that she said. But I do understand your friends statement.
Some of us have become so disillusioned with relationships that we have come to lack the faith that, for us, such a relationship exists.
Our own experience coupled with statistic regarding relationships, have led us to believe that life would be a little bit better if we had a little more money to live it, as opposed to the prospects un unhappy relationship.
The sadness is not that your friend counts happiness in terms of money, but that the true happiness, of a priceless relationship has eluded her, and that she has been scared by passed experience.
May God continue to Bless your Marriage, and may your friend find that happiness can come in a fulfilling relationship, more than money.
God Bless you.
Stevie