HOW TO BE A GOOD WIFE

Housekeeping Monthly in May of 1955 reportedly published an article on how to be a good wife. It was called, “The Good Wife’s Guide.” Women mock these today, but most marriages would be strong and survive until death to they part IF these were followed. (I will add my commentary on some of them!)

1. Have dinner ready. Plan ahead, even the night before, to have a delicious meal ready, on time for his return. This is a way of letting him know that you have been thinking about him and are concerned about his needs. Most men are hungry when they come home and the prospect of a good meal (especially his favorite dish) is part of the warm welcome needed.

2. Prepare yourself. Take 15 minutes to rest so you’ll be refreshed when he arrives. Touch up your makeup, put a ribbon in your hair, and be fresh-looking. He has just been with a lot of work-weary people. (Not sure about the ribbon! 🙂 )

3. Be a little gay and a little more interesting for him. His boring day may need a lift and one of your duties is to provide it. (I would change the word “gay” to cheerful; for the joy of the Lord is our strength!)

4. Clear away the clutter. Make one last trip through the main part of the house just before your husband arrives.

5. Gather up schoolbooks, toys, paper, etc. and then run a dustcloth over the tables.

6. Over the cooler months of the year you should prepare and light a fire for him to unwind by. Your husband will feel he has reached a haven of rest and order, and it will give you a lift too. After all, catering for his comfort will provide you with immense personal satisfaction. (We reap what we sow!)

7. Prepare the children. Take a few minutes to wash the children’s hands and faces (if they are small), comb their hair and, if necessary, change their clothes. They are little treasures and he would like to see them playing the part. Minimize all noise. At the time of his arrival, eliminate all noise of the washer, dryer or vacuum. Try to encourage the children to be quiet. (Train the children to not scream in the home. This is possible and makes home life far more enjoyable!)

8. Be happy to see him. (This is the first assignment I would give women when I began mentoring them over 20 years ago. Smile at your husband every time you see him!)

9. Greet him with a warm smile and show sincerity in your desire to please him. (Yes, we are commanded to please our husbands – 1 Corinthians 7:33.)

10. Listen to him. You may have a dozen important things to tell him, but the moment of his arrival is not the time. Let him talk first — remember, his topics of conversation are more important than yours. (They may not be more important but learning to be a good listener is a good quality to pursue – James 1:19.)

11. Make the evening his. Never complain if he comes home late or goes out to dinner, or other places of entertainment without you. Instead, try to understand his world of strain and pressure and his very real need to be at home and relax. (One woman I know has practically destroyed her marriage over always scolding her husband when he is home late. Don’t do this!)

12. Your goal: Try to make sure your home is a place of peace, order, and tranquility where your husband can renew himself in body and spirit.

13. Don’t greet him with complaints and problems. (Complaining to him when he gets home will not make him eager to get home.)

14. Don’t complain if he’s late for dinner or even if he stays out all night. Count this as minor compared to what he might have gone through that day. (Hmm, stays out all night? I think most women would want to know about this. This is far-fetched, but it’s important to do all you can to make him want to come home to you every night!)

15. Make him comfortable. Have him lean back in a comfortable chair or have him lie down in the bedroom. Have a cool or warm drink ready for him.

16. Arrange his pillow and offer to take off his shoes. Speak in a low, soothing and pleasant voice. (Make sure this is what he wants first.)

17. Don’t ask him questions about his actions or question his judgment or integrity. Remember, he is the master of the house and as such will always exercise his will with fairness and truthfulness. You have no right to question him. (Not all men will exercise their will with fairness and truthfulness. This isn’t a fairy land. If he is asking you to sin or wants to harm you in any way, you don’t submit. Plus, we are free to discuss things with our husbands in a kind and considerate way. Just make sure these discussions don’t turn into arguments where you demand to be right because then you’re wrong.)

18. A good wife always knows her place. (Her place is in the perfect will of God: being a help meet to her husband, loving him, pleasing him, and submitting to him in everything except for sin.)

Who can find a virtuous woman? for her price is far above rubies. The heart of her husband doth safely trust in her, so that he shall have no need of spoil. She will do him good and not evil all the days of her life.
Proverbs 31:10-12

https://thetransformedwife.com/how-to-be-a-good-wife/

LEARNING BIBLICAL WOMANHOOD FROM OLDER WOMEN

The other night, I listened to a sermon by Voddie Baucham called The Sufficiency of Scripture in the Disciple-Making Ministry of the Church and the Home. I encourage you to all go listen to it! He affirms what I teach concerning what women should be teaching other women.

Older women are commanded to teach younger women. What are they commanded to teach them, so the young women don’t blaspheme God’s Word?

“That they may teach the young women theology, Bible, apologetics…that the word of God be not blasphemed.” This is NOT what God puts in these verses! (Voddie Baucham)

“That they may teach the young women to be sober, to love their husbands, to love their children, to be discreet, chaste, keepers at home, good, obedient to their own husbands, that the word of God be not blasphemed” (Titus 2:4,5).

Yet, few older women are teaching younger women these things, so many younger women are blaspheming God’s Word. It’s an extremely rare Women’s Bible study or conference that teaches it.

He also preached that nowhere in God’s Word is it permissible for women to preach to and pastor women. The only ones who are to be preaching and pastoring women are biblically qualified men in the churches (elders and pastors). Female Bible teachers are what has led to the proliferation and full acceptance of female pastors which is become common in most churches.

Ideally, what should be happening is that the older women in the churches are gathering with the younger women in their homes teaching and training them in the ways of biblical womanhood. It should begin happening with mothers training their daughters as they grow up. Then learning new things from the older women in the churches. The older women could pass down so many lost skills that younger women don’t have such as gardening, sewing, cooking, baking, crocheting, knitting, canning, frugality, training children, eating healthy, tips for cleaning and organizing, what submission to husband looks like, modesty, and so on.

The Church would be a FAR more powerful influence for good if the older women in the churches were actually obeying God in this area. Instead, the younger women are blaspheming His Word by living no different than the world.

I will therefore that the younger women marry, bear children, guide the house, give none occasion to the adversary to speak reproachfully.
1 Timothy 5:14

https://thetransformedwife.com/21807-2/

DO NOT GIVE YOUR STRENGTH TO WOMEN

Written By Bill Smith on Facebook

“The words of King Lemuel. An oracle that his mother taught him: What, my son? What, son of my womb? What, son of my vows? Do not give your strength to women, your ways to those who destroy kings.” (Proverbs 31:1-3)

In 1969, Mallory Millet was invited by her sister, Kate, to attend a meeting to start a revolution. They were in the preliminary stages of forming The National Organization of Women. Kate was finishing her Ph. D. thesis for Columbia University that later became the book, Sexual Politics. The group met in the home of one of Kate’s friends, calling the meeting a “consciousness-raising-group.” The group was unabashedly Marxist, taking on communist talk and exercises. In the meeting, according to Mallory, the women went through a litany much like the Catholic Church might do but with very different content.

“Why are we here today?” she asked.
“To make revolution,” they answered.
“What kind of revolution?” she replied.
“The Cultural Revolution,” they chanted.
“And how do we make Cultural Revolution?” she demanded.
“By destroying the American family!” they answered.
“How do we destroy the family?” she came back.
“By destroying the American Patriarch,” they cried exuberantly.
“And how do we destroy the American Patriarch?” she replied.
“By taking away his power!”
“How do we do that?”
“By destroying monogamy!” they shouted.
“How can we destroy monogamy?”
“By promoting promiscuity, eroticism, prostitution and homosexuality!” they resounded.

How do you destroy Western Christian culture? Destroy the men. How do you destroy men? Take their strength … or, more accurately, have them give their strength away.

The king needs a wife, a helper comparable to him, who will aid him in the mission of developing the creation. But he must be careful. There are women out there who aren’t interested in helping a man build a household. There are leeches out there who will drain a man of all his power to fill and bring order to God’s creation. These women are trouble.

Lemuel’s mother warns her son not to give his strength to women; his ways to that which destroys kings. Don’t miss that his mother, not some misogynistic male, is giving him this counsel. His mother knows women, because she is one. If Lemuel is Solomon and the mother is Bathsheba (which is a strong possibility), the mother might know a little something about a king giving his strength to a woman.

Wise mothers are needed to instruct sons in the ways of wily women. We need mothers who understand the sinfulness particular to women, especially in their relations to men. We need mothers who are honest about their sinful tendencies, who don’t believe women are always right, or that being female is original righteousness. We need mothers who have subdued their sinful desire to rule their husbands, who show sons examples of Lady Wisdom.

Mothers like this understand that when men give their strength to women, both men and women are made weaker. Women do not gain the strength of men. They are burdened with the responsibility of men that they are not created to carry. Men and women both suffer when men give their strength to women.

The mother doesn’t place the responsibility for any loss of strength on women, no matter how wily they may be. If her son loses his strength, it will be because he gives it to women. They can’t take it from him.

How does a man give his strength to women? He gives no specifics. It is assumed by many that she is focused on sexual sins. Undoubtedly, that is one of the main ways men give their strength away (see Proverbs 5:9-12; 7:26-27). Men controlled by their sexual passions are weak, like a city broken into and without walls (Proverbs 25:28). The more they allow their sexual passions to run wild, the weaker they become. Men give strength away to prostitutes, pornography, or even manipulative wives; wives who seek to control their husbands by using sex as a bargaining chip. Men, listen to Lemuel’s mother. Don’t give your strength to women sexually.

While sexual sins are prominent, I believe Lemuel’s mother speaks of any area where men have God-given strength. Men are to be strong in setting and maintaining a mission. A man is to have direction and purpose, so that he is building something for the kingdom in a particular way. He is to maintain mental and emotional strength to avoid being manipulated and diverted. A strong man maintains his purpose, confidence, and strength that keeps him from capitulating to others’ agendas for his life, tossed about by others’ opinions. He is willing to lose relationships if he must to maintain the mission. This is what Jesus did. This is what he expects us to do. Men, don’t give up this “frame” to women. They are there to help you, not set the course.

Men are given strength authoritatively and are not to give that strength to women. Men have responsibilities that come with God-given authority and must use authority to serve the genuine needs of those under their care. “Genuine needs” are not always “felt needs,” and they certainly aren’t what everyone else wants to do without qualification. Men are to exhibit strength authoritatively, not as tyrants, but for the sake of others, even when they don’t understand what they need.

When men retain and use their strength, it is good for both men and women. When men give away their strength, everyone suffers. Men, don’t give your strength to women.

https://thetransformedwife.com/do-not-give-your-strength-to-women/