Unseen Demands

Like any other new thing we encounter, we anticipate what we know and plan how to handle the known challenges.  The early season of ministry has so many new things for us. As my husband and I entered our formal full time service, it corresponded to his first semester in school.  Were we both in for new and unexpected things.

My husband felt the weight of our family and circumstances because we relocated for him to attend school. [My husband began college as our son began first grade!] He had no concept of he would face the first semester or even the second. No one told us that college demanded equal study time to time spent in class—or how to balance school demands with family needs.

It was hard for me to understand all his new demands because I had my own unforeseen tests. I wish I had understood more clearly. Reflect with me from today’s perspective:

• He stayed up late at night because he spent our waking hours with us, his family.
• He awakened early in the morning to catch study time before we got up.
• He sought to be a good student to honor our investment in him.
• He sacrificed the “best” grades to balance time and energy with wife and children.
• He persevered through months of headaches that accompanied his learning curve.
• He needed my encouragement and appreciation.

Our husbands need our respect, and scripture reinforces this in Ephesians 5:33, “…and the wife must respect her husband.”

Webster’s Dictionary defines respect saying, “To take notice of; to regard with special attention; to regard as worthy of special consideration; hence, to care for; to heed; to consider worthy of esteem.” [1913 Webster]

Not every wife respects her husband, even wives of ministers. Many women fail to show respect today. What do you notice about your husband; and, do you praise or thank him as a result? Do your actions communicate that you pay attention to him or his needs? What do you do to care for him?

Reflect for a few minutes. What value do you place on your husband, and why? Review your “respect-quotient.” Think about that today. Pray asking God to allow you to think more highly of your husband, and to give you ways to show your regard today.

When you respect your husband, he will l.o.v.e. you back!!

Anita Onarecker Wood
Author/Devotional Writer/Speaker and Teacher Anita writes from a God-given passion and the overflow of His activity in her life. She was a young mother of two when her husband Dick Onarecker, recognized God’s call on his life. Suddenly she was a minister’s wife! For years they worked together….more