I wrote this piece on the day that my wife and I celebrated our 25th wedding anniversary. As you could guess, in our 25 years we’ve had many ups and downs, joys and sorrows, victories and defeats, but all in all, for me, it has been a confirmation of the scripture, “Whoso findeth a wife findeth a good thing and obtaineth favour of the Lord” (Proverbs 18:22).
God did me a real favor when he gave me my wife. He has given to me what every wife ought to give to her husband. What is that?
1. Companionship. In the beginning of time God said, “It is not good for man to be alone. So I will make a companion for him.” That’s the way and the reason why marriage came into being. God was right. Loneliness is devastating. We all need someone to walk with, talk with, and share with. We need someone to love and be loved by. A good wife provides companionship.
2. Encouragement. I just bought a new car. The operator’s manual said that if the tires are underinflated the car won’t perform up to full efficiency. In the same way, circumstances sometimes deflate my ego and I get down emotionally. When that happens my wife pumps me up. Through the years I have wanted, needed, and received her commendation more than any other. Every good wife is a good ego inflator.
3. Help. My wife has always felt inadequate as a preacher’s wife. She’s a little timid and reserved, and she’s been afraid that she’d hold me back in my career. From the first I assured her I didn’t want her as an assistant pastor. I can hire one of those. I wanted her to just be my wife and the mother of my children. That would be help enough.
4. Acceptance. We dated several years before we married. In fact she was the first girl I ever dated. So she knew most of my faults when she married me. She knew the rest of them a few weeks later. Yet she has loved me and accepted me in spite of them.
It’s not easy to be a preacher’s wife. There are long hours, an undependable schedule, continuous interruptions, and unrealistic expectations. But she has accepted me and these things well.
God was right as usual. The man who finds a good wife finds a good thing. That’s what happened to me 25 years ago.