This is a beautiful article written by Ashley Galbraith. She writes straight from her heart about how marriage is not the fairytale she had envisioned, but that faith in Christ keeps her marriage strong. She reminds us that respect and love are key principles God intends us to live out daily in marriage. If you are encouraged by this article, please let Ashley know by leaving your comments below!
Fairy Tales To Faith
What does it mean to be a “good wife?”
Do you have to be your husband’s slave, come when he calls, or bow down to his every whim? No, absolutely not. However, respect plays a major role in marriages and without it, it most certainly can fail.
When God created Adam, He felt that Adam needed a suitable helper. God created Eve out of one of Adam’s ribs and they became one flesh. They were created to share in the beautiful world that God had created in those six days. They were to be joined together to bring forth new life into the world; and they did this. However, they also brought sin into the world by falling for the serpents lie to Eve by eating from the Tree of the knowledge of good and evil. At this point, this is where marriage began to get hard, from my perspective at least.
Being a wife is a full time job. It is not an easy one either. Growing up all little girls’ think of is finding “Prince Charming”, whoever he is, and living happily ever after. Funny how my marriage has never been the fairy tale I always grew up thinking it would be. The fairy tales never mention you have to learn the quirks of your mate and learn to live with them. They never mention you have to accept that your mate snores, or leaves their clothes on the floor instead of putting them in the hamper. They most definitely never mention in those fairy tales that you will definitely come to a certain point in life that you don’t agree on everything! This is where the art of marriage comes in, but most of all, this is where the Lord steps in and gives you direction and advice on how to handle these situations that will arise.
Ephesians 5:22-33 gives some of the best advice on how to have a successful marriage in Christ. When I first read it though, I thought, seriously, you want me to “be subject to your own husbands, as to the Lord.” (NAS) Then it seemed to get even worse. Verse 23 says the “husband is the head of the wife, as Christ is the head of the church.” Didn’t look like it was getting any better, but then verse 25 it was all about the wife; “Husbands, love your wife (and only your wife), just as Christ also loved the church and gave Himself up for her…” Then verse 33 tied it all together with the last sentence, “the wife must see to it that she respects her husband.” I have found that without mutual respect between husband and wife, you are doomed for failure. I have also found that without Christ as the center of your marriage, the worldly ways will wrap you up and squeeze the life from your marriage. I know this from experience.
I have found that without biblical principles in my marriage, we were headed straight for divorce court. We have been there over our 8 year marriage. We got away from the Lord and church for a two year period and looking back now, I can see the fall of when it truly began. I don’t ever want to be back in those days again. The thoughts of divorce, hatred, and disrespect all flooded my mind. I honestly thought we would never recover. However, the Lord worked hard on my heart and brought me back to church and I haven’t left since. It has been almost a year since we started back to church regularly and by that I mean, when the doors are open; Sunday morning, Sunday evening and Wednesday night. My husband joins me on two of those occasions regularly since he works Sunday mornings. The impact it has made on our marriage and our lives has been one of tremendous favor! I have made sure that I encircle my life with good Christian women who go through the same struggles I do, but we go to the same person for our strength, Jesus Christ.
We still struggle in our marriage, but somehow it is different. We know that with Christ at the center, we can endure and move forward with any trial we face because of Jesus. He is the mighty one and deserves all the glory for bringing us out of the pit of a worldly marriage and into a Christ-centered one. We are blessed beyond measure! Our foundation in is Christ and with Him on our side, we will continue to grow and build on that foundation till the Lord calls us home.
-Ashley Galbraith
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