Last Monday I gave a talk to a beautiful group of women who get together every Monday at Life Austin Church to learn more about serving the Lord through their ministry as mothers. I spoke about becoming the powerful and influential wives that God created us to be. And the first step in this process is learning to understand our husbands. This week I will be sharing excerpts from that talk.

Our men NEED respect. They thrive on it. God commands that we give it. In Ephesians 5:33 Paul writes, “…each one of you also must love his wife as he loves himself, and the wife must respect her husband.” So let’s talk about learning to respect his judgment. Here’s a story from my own life that illustrates God’s wisdom in issuing this command.

Two weeks ago, while my husband was away in Jamaica, there was a thunderstorm in Austin that was unusually strong. The wind from the storm blew the screws out of part of our fence on the neighbor’s side. So I went over to my neighbor’s house to tell him about it because his dogs could escape through the opening. Terry assured me that he would take care of it the next day. Well the next morning, I woke up to knocking and drilling and when I looked out of the window, Terry had bought wood and screws and was practically repairing the entire fence that separated our yard from his. My first thought was that as soon as my husband returned, I needed to tell him to go next door and offer to pay for half the cost of the repairs. Really??!! I was supposed to be teaching wives about respecting their husband’s judgment and THIS was my first thought??!! I repented to God of my controlling behavior and when my husband returned that night, I merely informed him that I had told the neighbor about the fence, and reported that I’d seen him working it…and left it at that. I trusted his judgment. And guess what? My husband thanked me for telling him and we went on to have a really wonderful evening together. He could not stop complimenting me on what a wonderful wife I was. If he only knew!