The Charge of Husbanding a Wife

“For a husband has authority over his wife just as Christ has authority over the church; and Christ is himself the Savior of the church, his body”. – Ephesians 5:23

In the process of a woman becoming a wife, she undergoes a rebirth. She changes her name, home, sometimes her looks, career, her physique (in motherhood) and often her lifestyle. She takes on the identity of her husband, adapts herself to him and becomes an extension of him. To a large extent, the person she used to be essentially dies.

The husband is the head of the home, the high priest, the provider, the primary decision maker. What does the wife get in return?

Ideally, after the death of her old self, there should be a rebirth of a better, more evolved version of herself: The helpmeet that God created her to be, a powerful catalyst, an enabler, the engine room of the family, the wind beneath the wings of her husband and children. It is one of God’s most genius designs, the emergence of the helpmeet within marriage. A potent weapon in the hands of God to shape a godly family, the heart of heaven’s inheritance on earth.

Does this rebirth always happen?

Between death and rebirth, sometimes death overcomes. The old her dies but the new her does not emerge. Like the butterfly larvae that goes to Pupa and Imago, her hibernation can sometimes be fatal, if there is not enough nourishment available in the environment for her transmutation. This failure to launch, versus the impetus to complete the intermission between death and new life, is largely dependent on her husband.

Harshness, a lack of empathy, absence of protection, overburdening or carelessness can create a deadly environment that poisons (rather than nurtures), the delicate life that needs to be transformed.

It takes a godly husband, who is yielded to the Spirit of God to understand and appreciate the exchange that his wife makes, what she has laid down in order to fully manifest as his helpmeet. It requires the combination of a skilled gardener, the spirit of the husbandman, the heart of a shepherd and the agape love of God to cultivate the environment that supports her emergence.

We wish you fruitful husbanding!
Eden Mandate 06072023