I <3 Wednesdays: The Woman's Secret Weapon

I was at one of the mega-churches in Singapore that had me queuing up for service like an hour and a half before it starts, (and wonder why people do that week after week) and well, Pastor Joseph Prince was preaching this particular Sunday, and practically placed this Wednesday's post into my hands. Thank God!

Okay, so he was telling the husbands at church that when God made Eve, it was to be his helper, and that was the first time the word 'help' or 'helper' appeared in the Bible.

And the LORD God said, “It is not good that man should be alone; I will make him a helper comparable to him.”
- Genesis 2:18 (NKJV)

The fact that God is our Help, and yet He first revealed that word through Eve speaks of the role of a helper a wife is to her husband.

"God's help is wrapped in the wife," he said.

Comparable, Pastor Prince said, in its Hebrew word meant both for and against. It is not about agreeing about everything your husband says, sometimes it takes disagreeing as well.

What then, is the woman's secret weapon of 'controlling her husband'? No, it's not food, nor sex. It's respect. Respecting that he is the head of the household, respecting his authority, respecting who he is and that God placed him where he is. And that a wife showing respect to her husband, and a husband loving his wife, is fulfilling God's instructions to each other.

Husbands, to love. Wives, to respect.


Writing this post reminded me of one of our earlier posts on leadership and submission. Googling 'wives+submission+respect' seemed to give more than enough indication that respect is an integral part of submission. True isn't it? How do you submit to someone you do not respect? You can nearly call it slavery, and yet slaves do respect their masters as well.

Also, on contrary to popular belief, the wife should not say that her husband does not deserve her respect, because the husband can easily say that she does not deserve his love as well. I reckon it's a two-way thing. It could either build up to something wonderful, or downward spiral in a vicious cycle to a mess of a relationship.


So what now, my single ladies? Have I written these paragraphs for future references when I get married? I don't think so.

Respect, I reckon, will hold the same place in a guy's heart as love would to a girl's. The main source to fulfill a single's desire of love or respect should come from above, because we know fully well that humans don't satisfy that need at all. With the Main Source tapped, and that 'hole' in our heart filled, we can then be empowered to practise this respect, or love, to others.

Respecting our fellow brothers-in-Christ sounds like a tough call. Many times we complain that they are too immature, they are jerks (sorry guys) and the last thing that we might catch ourselves talking about with other girls is how respectable a brother is. But perhaps it is time to realise that shooting down a guy's ego should not list top 3 on your favourite past-times, and that respecting them for who they are, could be the start of a beneficial and effective Christian love between us and them.

We practise our role of respect and submission to the men of our lives (of course realizing that we are but under the authority of God and our father-figure in life), and maybe they'll stop calling us feminazis and treat us with respect and love that we wish to have from them. (: