the lovable wife

Recently, I believe the Holy Spirit gave me a fresh perspective on Ephesians 5. For me at least, it is so easy to become preoccupied and focused on how well Mark is loving me. It is easy to ask myself, "Do I feel loved?" It seems the Lord has flipped the question around in recent days. He has me asking myself a far more difficult question.

"Am I easy to love?"

Wives, I dare you to ask yourself the same question. When I asked Mark what characterizes the lovable wife he of course said a respectful one. Thanks. That was helpful. No, really. So I asked him to come up with a list of qualities, very specific, that would make for an easy to love wife. I will post them as soon as he comes up his list. What would her attitude be? What would her actions convey? What would she talk about? What kinds of questions would she ask? What would she (gasp) look like???

In thinking of my own list I found it easier to think of what makes a wife hard to love. Here is my short portrait of the hard to love wife.

- critical
- non-affectionate or cold
- complainer
- easily offended
- unforgiving
- not actively encouraging and praising, failure to identify and articulate husbands accomplishments
- inflexible with schedule
- selfish, self-centered


O.K. blogosphere. It's your turn. I'd like your help, too. What makes a wife easy to love?? Let's give some specifics.


Ephesians 5


Submit to one another out of reverence for Christ.

Wives, submit to your husbands as to the Lord. For the husband is the head of the wife as Christ is the head of the church, his body, of which he is the Savior. Now as the church submits to Christ, so also wives should submit to their husbands in everything.

Husbands, love your wives, just as Christ loved the church and gave himself up for her to make her holy, cleansing her by the washing with water through the word, and to present her to himself as a radiant church, without stain or wrinkle or any other blemish, but holy and blameless. In this same way, husbands ought to love their wives as their own bodies. He who loves his wife loves himself. After all, no one ever hated his own body, but he feeds and cares for it, just as Christ does the church— for we are members of his body. "For this reason a man will leave his father and mother and be united to his wife, and the two will become one flesh." This is a profound mystery—but I am talking about Christ and the church. However, each one of you also must love his wife as he loves himself, and the wife must respect her husband.