Inside the pages – an excerpt from
Keeping It Fresh – A Love that Keeps on Growing,
by Pete and Bev Caruso
From Chapter Fourteen – Meeting Your Wife’s Needs
#7 – She Needs Security
Security In Her Relationship with You – She needs to know that in your heart and mind, the marriage will not end until “death do us part.”
Malachi records God’s declaration that He hates divorce. Jesus reaffirmed that God views a marriage as a lifetime union. We need to eliminate from our thinking and our speech any possibility of divorce.
When both husband and wife know that divorce is not an option they can be assured that they can work out their differences and not risk losing one another. There may be quarrels and misunderstandings. She needs to know that with God’s help, you WILL stay together and work it out.
Choose to Limit Yourself to Your Wife
We men by nature are conquerors who would like to conquer any woman that attracts our interest. The greatest show of love we can give our wife is to choose to forsake all others, consciously limiting ourself to her: our eyes, our body, our thoughts, our whole heart. By going against our natural instincts we communicate clearly—I Love You!
A wife needs to know she is Number One in her husband’s life.
- Not other women—or another woman
- Not his job
- Not football, golf, racquetball, or hunting
- Not his hobby
During the years we were pastoring, I usually spent Saturday evenings in my office putting together my final notes for the next day’s sermon. One particularly stressful evening when our daughter was about to be married, our sons were fussing at each other. Bev phoned me in tears. It was clear she couldn’t be consoled over the phone. I put down my pen and drove home immediately. Bev and I took a drive together and I listened. There were no problems to be fixed. I just listened. I let her know I cared that she was hurting. I must have held her in my arms there in the car for thirty or forty minutes after she finished crying and talking. She has since said that was a turning point in her awareness and certainty of my love for her. She now knew that she was more important than any sermon, or even my job as a pastor.
© Beverly Caruso