Men.. listen to your wives!

A couple of months ago, Monica and I were looking at a potential place to move into.

I fell in love with it. I loved the fact that it was two stories, had 2 bedrooms and 2 bathrooms. I loved that it also had an office and the highlight for me was the creek in the backyard. I thought this place was perfect.

Monica on the other hand had some issues with the place. For one, she didn't like how the office was located at the very entrance of the home. Something about that layout made it weird for her. Another concern for her was the fact that the house was covered in carpet. I had asked her what the big deal was about carpet, she said she was worried that our cat would stain it if he threw up on it.

After meeting with the landlord, we had told her that we would discuss it and get back to her. I was pretty adamant about getting this place and Monica was pretty adamant about not getting it. Naturally, we argued about it (because that's what sinners do and that's exactly what we are, sinners!).

In the midst of all the arguing we both resorted to making this decision the way we would usually make big decisions: Pray about it, then if we agree to go forward we will do it, if not then we won't.

And so we prayed, discussed it the next day and we were still not on the same page. I was pretty upset. My thought was the fact that I was the leader of the home and that I should have the final say, but Monica really stated concerns. She kept pointing out the fact that our cat would throw up on the carpet! I argued that we shouldn't worry about that and that our cat would be fine. We came to the conclusion that maybe it was not of the Lord, because we were not in agreement about it.

A part of me felt as if Monica was in the wrong, because I felt that she was not submitting, so I was upset about it.

The next day though, our cat, who I was so sure would not get sick started getting the runs and vomiting everywhere. This lasted for two days and it was quite a mess to clean up! Also, most recently I've found that the place I wanted so badly ended up in an area where it has been flooding since the start of Spring.

I am seeing now that God did not want us there and that He had something easy, better, and more affordable in mind for us.

It brings me to the conclusion that we should really listen to our wives.

In fact, the Lord had also showed me that listening to your wife (even in the biggest of decisions) is Biblical. God told Abraham to listen to his wife in the way they would handle Ishmael. Abraham's wife Sarah asked Abraham to get rid of Ishmael, and so he did (as hard as that was!) Also, Samuel's mom Hannah decided that when Samuel was born she was going to drop him off at the temple and give him to the Lord. As hard as this might have been on her husband, he listened to his wife, trusted her and agreed to give him to the Lord. Because of these men listening to their wives, God was able to do amazing things.

Don't get me wrong, I am in no way saying that God has not called men to lead, He has, but the truth is that God will give vision to a man's wife and may save the couple from heading into disaster (Just look at Esther and Xerces!)

So as men, we ought to stop with the power trips and be flexible to how the Lord might want to speak to us through our awesome wives.