Respect Your Spouse

Several times I have heard different women joke about her husband being one of her kids. The joke is usually in response to another woman's question of how many kids she has, and goes something like, "I have four kids--my two daughters, my son, and my husband." Usually the joke is received with laughs all around and a reply of "Ain't that the truth!" from the other woman.

I, however, don't find these jokes funny. I find them sad--an evidence of a lack of respect between husband and wife. Regardless whether the seemingly innocent joke is true or not, to speak of one's spouse in such a manner is disrespectful and degrading. I would hate my husband to go around talking and joking about me in such a manner, so why would I (or any woman) think it would be appropriate to speak of my (or her) husband that way?

One of the unfortunate consequences of the feminist movement is that many women are not satisfied with being equal to men; they want to be considered better than men and are constantly putting men down in attempts to enhance their superiority. Now, don't get me wrong, I am grateful for the feminist movement and its efforts to establish parity between the sexes, and I honor the women suffragettes who fought for and won my right to vote. I greatly appreciate my equal chance for education and employment, and my freedom to walk the streets 9 months pregnant without being scoffed at for not staying indoors in proper "confinement." I also am a fan of wearing jeans. However, some women take women's rights too far. They disparage men, including their husbands. Instead of encouraging them, supporting them, and helping to lift them higher, they bring them down with nagging, disparaging comments and jokes, and treat them like children and then get frustrated when they start acting that way.

Wives, love your husbands. Respect them. Honor them. Remember the great things about them that led you to fall in love with them in the first place and make that life-long or eternal commitment to stand by them in marriage. If you want your husbands to stand up and be men, treat them that way. Instead of nagging them, compliment them on things they are doing right. Find things about them that you admire and let them know. Share their good qualities in your conversations with family, friends, and associates. Be faithful to them in word and deed. Husbands, do likewise.

God did not symbolically take bone to create Eve from Adam's head, that she may rule over him, nor from his foot, that he may rule over her; but He took "one from his ribs" (Genesis 2:21), that they may stand side by side as equal partners.

As husbands and wives work together toward mutual respect, they will become equal partners. Love will grow. Happiness will increase. Each spouse will want to be a better person because they know the other believes in them.

My husband is a great man. He loves me, honors me, and respects me. He has helped me and does help me achieve my goals. He doesn't focus on my faults, but compliments my strengths. He listens to me. He quickly forgives me. He speaks kindly of me to others. He helps out around the house. He changes diapers. His kids and I adore him.

Though we each have adopted different roles in our family life (he provides, I stay at home with the kids), we are, in every way, equal partners. We are far from perfect, but that is okay. We believe in each other, and together, and with the Lord, we will make it. Our mutual respect and love will help us get there.

"Neither is the man without the woman, neither the woman without the man, in the Lord" (1 Corinthians 11:11).

Husbands and wives, please, respect your spouse.