The Bible is clear that wives are to honor their husbands. What does this look like in marriage and the public square?
Mark Merrill, founder and president of Family First, a national non-profit organization dedicated to helping people love their families well, shares his stance on honoring husbands. His thoughts stem from an article he wrote titled 7 Things Wives Should Stop Doing.
You might not realize you’re dishonoring your husband.
“There are so many ways you can dishonor your husband. You see it all the time. We hear a wife or husband talking very negatively about the other, about what they don’t do in their relationship – about all the wrong things they say or the wrong thing they do. Women dishonor their husbands, not intentionally, but especially when they have kids, by treating their husband as if he is one of the kids. That can be very dishonoring and degrading as a man.”
When and how to stop
Using sarcasm or cutting language especially in front of others, questioning his judgment in front of others, and being secretive or deceptive about important topics are all dishonoring to your husbands.
It is important that a couple works together and accepts one another’s influence. That makes them stronger. But a couple is not made stronger when a wife questions her husband’s judgment in front of others. There’s a time and place for a wife to do that.
“We don’t want to correct one another in public. Your wife might say something when talking with some friends or when you are out with another couple. And as her words come out of her mouth your thinking, ‘it didn’t happen that way.‘ You could jump on her and correct her and make her look bad, or you could just go with it. Is it going to hurt anybody? No. Just let it go in that moment, and if it needs to be addressed or corrected later on, it can be corrected.”
Mark says that there are three C’s to be aware of when interacting or referring to each other in public.
“We need to make sure that we’re not critical of one another in public, that we’re not correcting one another in public, or being condescending to one another in public.”
And ultimately, we need to love each other and we need to respect each other.
Key Scriptures: Psalm 1
Featured Songs: Awake My Love by I Am They; Restore by Chris August; King of My Heart by Love & the Outcome
