thoughts from Jeff Allinder

So fellas, we talk at Frat House about a lot of things relevant to the daily walk of a Christian man, but I submit that the most important thing for those of us who are married to do well (outside of our faith) is to love our wives. Ephesians 5 tells us to “love our wives like Christ loved the church.” The context of that is agape love, or “self-sacrificing” love. What does it mean to love your wife that way? Here are my thoughts:

- Since there are thousands of ways and all relationships are different, here are just a few:
• Listen to her even when you don’t want to/heard it before/know how to solve the problem
• Go to the chick-flick
• Cook for her
• Watch HGTV
• Give her mom’s-night-out (bathe the kids and pick up the house before she gets home)

You get the idea – the point is to put her needs first. Then do it again. And again. Get joy out of serving her with no expectations for quid pro quo.

Now, let’s move on to the “how” part of the equation. You know that you should be spending time in prayer and reading your Bible on a daily basis. But my best tip for loving your wife outside of that is to choose your friends wisely. Doesn’t make sense? Check this out – you all know that this isn’t behavior you’ll see in a movie, on a HBO series, or anywhere else in our culture. The way to get really good at this is to have friends that are chasing after Jesus every day and working hard to love their wives as He tells us to. You’ll hear their stories and see them putting their wife’s happiness at the top of their priority list. Most of all, you’ll see the results and be challenged to be that kind of husband. As we heard previously from Hal, choose the right events and you’ll have chosen the right path.