The Excellent Wife

A few weeks ago I mentioned being introduced to Martha Peace in a Links and Resources post.  Since then, I have listened to all of her podcasts and picked up her book, “The Excellent Wife.”  I am pretty sure I have listened to her podcast on having a gentle and quiet spirit at least 5 times and I will probably listen to it several more!  It is by far the best teaching I have heard on what it means to have a gentle and quiet spirit.  

I am also loving reading her book.  It is blowing my mind and I so wish that I had read this before I ever met Hal and I am sure he does as well!  I was able to get a copy at Lifeway and I am sure most Christian book stores have it.  I will probably be sharing a lot from this book over the next few weeks.  If you are looking for a book or study I encourage you to pick it up!

I wanted to share this closing paragraph from Chapter 4.  This chapter focuses on a wife understanding God’s pattern for marriage.  I love how it reinforces the pattern of submission and order we see in the Trinity.

“Because our natural tendency is to “self,” it is important to be daily in God’s Word which is “living and active” and “able to judge the thoughts and intentions of (your) heart” (Hebrews 4:12).  The Holy Spirit will use the Holy Word of God to convict you at your deepest level so that your motivation in your relationship with your husband may be for the glory of God instead of the glory of self.

“In your relationship with your husband, God wants you to communicate in love and experience a righteous intimacy through sharing thoughts, present and future desires, aspirations, goals, struggles, and spiritual insights.  He wants you to be open, honest, and transparent.  Your words are to be edifying.  Your tasks sacrificial. Your motive for the glory of God. Remember that your pattern for the oneness is the Trinity. He wants you to be not only to be holy like the Lord Jesus, but He also wants you to help your husband become as much like Him as is possible.  Your becoming more and more like Jesus is the process of progressive sanctification.  You and your Christian husband helping each other become more like Jesus is the process of mutual sanctification.”