Husbands, God Has a Key For You and Your Relationship with Your Wife
Forbes Magazine, generally known for its financial prowess, conducted a survey resulting in an article titled “The Top Ten Traits Women Want In A Husband.” You will be interested in learning what the number one trait was found to be.
Before we find out what a secular business magazine tells us about what your wife is looking for, let’s look at what God’s Word calls a man to be.
“For husbands, this means love your wives, just as Christ loved the church. He gave up his life for her to make her holy and clean, washed by the cleansing of God’s word.” Ephesians 5:25, NLT
This passage calls on us husbands to love our wives in specific ways: (1) give up our lives for our wives and (2) cleanse our wives by engaging in God’s Word with them.
I can hear some of you groaning right now. I encourage you to stop and consider asking yourself, “What did I think placing my faith in Jesus would call me to as a husband?”
You and I have been called to love our wives by protecting them, providing for them, and promoting them. If this seems like an impossible task, you are right. It is. However, empowered by the Holy Spirit, you have what you need for this assignment.
Your question now may be, “How? Give me an example.” It may be as simple as turning the outside light on for them when they come home, buying their favorite candy bar and placing it on their car seat, or speaking well of your wife among your friends. If done with sincerity, these small gestures mean so much to a woman’s heart.
A beautiful upward spiral occurs in a marriage when a man loves his wife well by laying his life down. Your wife (if she has not been too wounded from her past experience with you) will naturally respond with respect. Respect is a deep need for all of us men.
Scripture says it this way, “So again I say, each man must love his wife as he loves himself, and the wife must respect her husband” (Ephesians 5:33, NLT).
You may say, “I have never felt real respect from my wife.” Once again, my response is, “Have you laid your life down for her? And was it such a laying down of your life that it reflected how well you know your wife?” If you laid your life down this way, you have sown a good seed. And sowing good seed reaps a harvest as you sow with patience and perseverance. Go for it! You will not regret following God in this way.
So, what was the result of the Forbes survey? The number one trait a woman is looking for in her husband is “mutual attraction and love.” In other words, the women surveyed reflected the very thing God spoke concerning them – they need your love.