Every true wife makes her husband's interests her own. While he lives for her, carrying her image in his heart and toiling for her all the days—she thinks only of what will do him good. When burdens press upon him—she tries to lighten them by sympathy, by cheer, by the inspiration of love. She enters with zest and enthusiasm into all his plans. She is never a weight to drag him down; she is strength in his heart to help him ever to do nobler and better things.
There are many wives, even on this weekend, that are attending a Women’s Retreat somewhere. It so happens that my wife is one of them. If this is true for you husbands, as well, give thanks. These wives embark on a 3 to 4 day quest of understanding of themselves and others around them, that includes you men. These wives go on these retreats to better themselves spiritually, holistically.
Most of the time these women attend these retreats with heavy burdens on their hearts, and some just for the spiritual break they need from life. A woman may well pause before she gives her hand in marriage, and inquire whether he is worthy, to whom she is asked to surrender so much; whether he can bring true happiness to her life; whether he can meet the cravings of her nature for love and for companionship; whether he is worthy to be lifted to the highest place in her heart and honored as a husband should be honored.
She must ask these questions for her own sake, else the dream may fade with the wedding day. She may learn, when too late, that he for whom she has left all, and to whom she has given all—is not worthy of the sacred trust, and has no power to fill her life with happiness, to awaken her heart's chords, to touch her soul's depths. But the question should be turned and asked from the other side.
Can she be a true wife to him who asks for her hand? Can she be a blessing to the life of him who would lift her to the throne of his heart? Will he find in her all the beauty, all the tender loveliness, all the rich qualities of nature, all the deep sympathy and companionship, all the strengthful uplifting love, all the sources of joy and help, which he seems now to see in her?”
Is there any possible future for him, which she could not share? Are there needs in his soul, or hungers, which she cannot answer? Are there chords in his life which her fingers cannot awaken? "What is the true ideal of a godly wife?" "It is not something lifted above the common experiences of life, not an ethereal angel feeding on ambrosia and moving in the realms of imagination."
"In some European cities they sell to the tourist models of their cathedrals made of alabaster, whiter than snow. But so delicate are these alabaster shrines that they must be kept under glass covers or they will be soiled by the dust; and so frail that they must be sheltered from every crude touch, lest their lovely columns may be shattered.”
“They are very graceful and beautiful. So there are ideals of womanhood which are very lovely, full of graceful charms, pleasing, attractive—but which are too delicate and frail for this wearisome, storm-swept world of ours. Such ideals the poets and the novelists sometimes give us."
“They appear well to the eye—as they are portrayed for us on the brilliant page. But of what use would they be in the life which the real woman of our day has to live? One day of actual experience in the hard toils and sore struggles of life would shatter their frail loveliness to fragments! We had better seek for ideals which will not be soiled by a crude touch, nor blown away by a stiff breeze, and which will grow lovelier as they move through life's paths of sacrifice and toil."
"The true wife needs to be no mere poet's dream, no artist's picture, no ethereal lady too fine for use—but a woman healthful, strong, practical, industrious, with a hand for life's common duties, yet crowned with that beauty which a high and noble purpose gives to a soul." "What is the true ideal of a Godly wife" by J.R. Miller. I thank God for the wife I have today, and the strength within her.
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