The Woman He Deserves

Ephesians 5:22 & 25
22Wives, submit to your husbands as to the Lord. 25Husbands, love your wives, just as Christ loved the church and gave himself up for her
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My husband and I recently celebrated 12 years of marriage. And, as cliché as it may sound, I am more in love with him now than I have ever been. It helps when you’re married to an incredible guy.

In fact, I was thinking the other day about what a great husband my Alton is, and how awful of a wife I can be sometimes…getting impatient over little things, nagging him when I’m not happy and pointing out his faults and mistakes. You know, any guy willing to clean house, do laundry, clean up after sick kids, and so on, certainly deserves better than that.

Then I got to thinking about what the wife my husband deserves would be like. She’d definitely be beautiful, with a fantastic body. Even first thing in the morning she’d be lovely and sweet. She’d always be patient, loving, quick to compliment and slow to criticize. She’d be an excellent homemaker. He’d come home to a spotless, orderly house and a delicious, hot meal every day. She’d also be a great mother, president of the PTA, an active volunteer in the community and a part-time aerobics instructor to boot.

Get the picture? But instead of the wife he deserves, my husband has me, the wife he got. But, do you want to know the most amazing part of the whole thing? He loves me like I was that other woman! How incredible is that? How Christ-like is that?

In Ephesians, our Husbands are told to love us just as Christ loved the church. We certainly are not the church Christ deserves, are we? We fall so short of that kind of righteousness. But he loves us anyway! So much so that he died for us! I’ll never be the perfect wife Alton deserves, I’m human. We’ll never be the perfect body that Christ is worthy of, we’re human. But in both cases a good dose of submission and endless amounts of grace will go a long way.