How to Honor Your Wife: Encourage Her Gifts
by David Chadwick
We accepted the call to our first church in 1980. For our first year in ministry, Marilynn told me she wanted to get our home secure and learn what it’s like to be a preacher’s wife. Fortunately, the wonderful people of that church never placed any expectations upon her. They simply wanted her to be her!
That’s what she did. She was always by my side, as a gracious wife and helper. In those early years, when this church was small, we were everything from the youth leaders to pastoral counselors to Bible teachers to prayer leaders. We were involved in everything that went on in the church—mostly because we had to be.
Yet I knew that underneath her servant’s heart laid a greatly gifted woman of God—gifted in ways I wasn’t. I knew she had much to offer the world. She had already sacrificed much to follow me. Therefore, I wanted to encourage her gifts, passions, and goals in life.
Encouraging Marilynn’s gifts was all about releasing her God-given potential. As her husband, her life partner in marriage, I was in a better position than anyone else to make that happen.
Have you ever thought about that as well—that you as a husband are the one person who is most able to encourage your wife’s gifts? God has gifted her in special ways—in fact, she’s gifted in areas that you aren’t. God brought you two together because he knew you could help bring the best out of each other.
Biblically, husbands are called to love their wives (Ephesians 5:25). In my opinion, one of the best ways you can demonstrate the love of Jesus to your wife is to help her launch her gifts.
Here is one final point of advice: As you encourage your wife to discover her passions, try to find those areas in which you share similar giftedness. When you do, if possible, try to find ministry and service opportunities you can do together. These experiences will draw you closer like nothing else—just like the mission trips that Marilynn and I do together.
I pray you will encourage your wife to discover and use her unique gifts. I pray especially you’ll be able to find mutual areas of giftedness through which you can serve together. That will especially help to draw you closer together. And make you one.
This series is adapted from David Chadwick’s book, Eight Great Ways to Honor Your Wife. To download your free PDF copy of the book, please visit our website by clicking here!