Walking With Christ

Proverbs 31:10-12  (10)Who can find a virtuous and capable wife?  She is more precious than rubies.  (11)Her husband can trust her, and she will greatly enrich his life.  (12)She brings him good, not harm, all the days of her life.(ESV)

It can be difficult to admit to being wrong.  It can be difficult to admit to being weak or failing.  It can be difficult to admit to being lost.  It can be difficult to admit to being a monster or worse.

She found me when I was lost in the wilderness.  Angry, broken, and wounded.  I lashed out at even friends, which is why I had so few.  I was living the rejection that I’d known so well for so long.  It was manifesting into something hideous.  The world was twisting around me, darkness was closing in, there were shadows everywhere, enemies looked like friends, and friends looked like monsters that enjoyed causing me pain.

 She walked through the storm and called my name.

Proverbs 31:25-26  (25)She is clothed with strength and dignity, and she laughs without fear of the future.  (26)When she speaks, her words are wise, and she gives instructions with kindness.(ESV)

She has always carried herself with such dignity and strength.  No matter how I raged and tore at the world, she always spoke softly into the storm.  She spoke with love and wisdom.  A word, a touch, sometimes just a glance was all it took to bring rationality and reason back into the world.  When she was around, things just made sense.  For, perhaps, the first time ever, things made sense.  I was blind and she was the corrective prescription.  It wasn’t instant.  I had years of anger, hate, bad habits, pain, and worse to contend with.  I spent years at the bottom of a bottle trying to drown the pain, physical, mental, emotional, and spiritual.  I was a destructive monster.  A lot of holes in the walls and doors to replace.  We never had any money because I spent it all replacing the things I had broken.  I excelled at tearing people down in ways that were difficult to recover from.

I was all of these horrible things and more.  Yet, she stayed.  Like any wounded animal, I lashed out at the one trying to help me.  She still carries the scars to this day even though she masks them well.  I think that she has internalized some of my flaws, weaknesses, and blamed herself for my shortcomings.  Yet, no matter how hard I pushed her away, tried to self-destruct, or lashed out blindly, she just held me tighter.

Ruth 1:16-17  (16)But Ruth replied, “Don’t ask me to leave you and turn back.  Wherever you go, I will go; wherever you live, I will live.  Your people will be my people, and your God will be my God.  (17)Wherever you die, I will die, and there I will be buried.  May the Lord punish me severely if I allow anything but death to separate us!”(ESV)

When I got hurt on the job, she literally carried me to the bathroom.  It took six months before I could go to the bathroom on my own.  It would take years to fully recover.  After the wreck that completely erased my memory, she carried the whole family for the five years that followed.

Mark 2:3-5  (3)four men arrived carrying a paralyzed man on a mat.  (4)They couldn’t bring him to Jesus because of the crowd, so they dug a hole through the roof above his head.  Then they lowered the man on his mat, right down in front of Jesus.  (5)Seeing their faith, Jesus said to the paralyzed man, “My child, your sins are forgiven.”(ESV)

Even in the face of adversity, she never flinched.  She never backed down.  She never gave up.  She pushed through the adversity, using discernment and wisdom in equal measure.

1 Samuel 25:3  This man’s name was Nabal, and his wife, Abigail, was a sensible and beautiful woman.  But Nabal, a descendant of Caleb, was crude and mean in all his dealings.(ESV)

1 Samuel 25:32-33  (32)David replied to Abigail, “Praise the Lord, the God of Israel, who has sent you to meet me today!  (33)Thank God for your good sense!  Bless you for keeping me from murder and from carrying out vengeance with my own hands.(ESV)

She stood face-to-face, toe-to-toe, with a raging beast with no promise of protection.  She spoke boldly into the storm.

Esther 4:14  If you keep quiet at a time like this, deliverance and relief for the Jews will arise from some other place, but you and your relatives will die.  Who knows if perhaps you were made queen for just such a time as this?(ESV)

I don’t know if I will ever be able to match her.  I know that I will never deserve her.

Ephesians 5:25-26  (25)For husbands, this means love your wives, just as Christ loved the church.  He gave up his life for her (26)to make her holy and clean, washed by the cleansing of God’s word.(ESV)

1 Peter 3:7  In the same way, you husbands must give honor to your wives.  Treat your wife with understanding as you live together.  She may be weaker than you are, but she is your equal partner in God’s gift of new life.  Treat her as you should so your prayers will not be hindered.(ESV)

Honor is due to her.  She is an heir of grace.  Honoring her is not optional—it is commanded.  I love my beautiful and amazing wife.  She is the brightest jewel in a splendid crown.

She is a woman worthy of honor:

• She is Proverbs 31—wisdom and strength.
• She is Ruth—faithful in the hardest of times.
• She is the Four Friends—carrying the burden when I could not walk.
• She is Abigail—wise in hardship.
• She is Esther—standing in the gap.

This is my challenge.  It is a challenge to me, but also to men everywhere.  With every verse I read that reminds me of who my wife is, I heard God asking, “Will you honor her as she deserves?  Will you respond to her love as Christ Commands?  Will you now be the one to carry the faith she carried for so long?”

I accept this challenge.  Because a woman like this is not just a reason to love—she is the reason to be the man God has called us to be.