When I married my wonderful husband six years ago, I fully intended to unconditionally love him. I had great intentions of being the perfect wife, with encouraging words, a romantic kiss and dinner on the table every evening! But then business involvements intensified, bills increased, extended relationships strained, chores grew and life got chaotic.
When marriage doesn’t meet the unrealistic expectations we imagine before the wedding, and real life kicks in, often we can inadvertently get lured into tearing down our husbands and our marriages as well.
In fact, the longer couples are together, the easier it becomes to not only see each other’s flaws, but to mercilessly criticize them. This eventually leads to low tolerances, short tempers, minimal patience and a woeful lack of marital bliss. As a result, those gifts of unconditional love that were once offered so freely become gifts that we are not so willing to offer at all.
We have the power to build up or tear down our partners every day, merely by the amount of respect we give and the amount of faith we let them know we have in them. Respect and admiration are two of the most powerful tools a woman has to show love to her husband.
Through a wife’s gifts of unconditional love, respect, and admiration, we can help our husbands become the great men that God created them to be, and in turn, create the marriages we always dreamed of. Want to know more about unconditional love? Visit Caringbah Baptist Church www.caringbahbaptist.org.au
by Robyn Lindsay