God has given us women the privilege and the ability to bring life to our husbands with our love.
By Barbara Rainey
A young man who is pampered in his youth becomes increasingly arrogant and demanding as he grows older. Eventually, he is transformed by a spell into a literal beast as a punishment because it is a reflection of his true nature. His only hope for release is to be truly loved by a woman—a seemingly impossible achievement. In his anger, he demands to be loved, but his beastly behavior only drives people further away until he is totally alone, isolated from the world of humans.
You probably recognize this story as Beauty and the Beast.
There are many variations on this story in different cultures, but all have the same ending. A woman sees something of value in the beast and begins to love him. That love transforms him back into a man—and not just the man he was before, but a new, changed man. How could she have loved him as fearsome as he was? It’s a mystery, but it illustrates the power of a woman’s love.
God has given us enormous power in our husband’s life
Marriage is intended to be redemptive for both men and women. God has given us women the privilege and the ability to bring life to our husbands with our love. Women have enormous power with men, and we can use it for good or for evil.
Consider three examples from the Scripture. Take the power of Delilah with Samson. Samson could take on an army of warriors, but he surrendered to the charms of one woman. In Killing Giants, Pulling Thorns, Chuck Swindoll describes Samson as a “He-man, with a she-weakness.”
Take King David, who faced and felled a nine-foot Goliath, yet fell under the spell of Bathsheba. David was so obsessed, he fell away from his God into immorality, lies, and ultimately murder.
And consider Solomon, who ruled over the golden years of Israel but was captivated by the power of women. Actually, make that the power of 700 wives and 300 concubines.
A woman’s power over men has not lessened since those biblical days. Today, the advertising industry exploits this power in order to sell everything from cars to toothpaste. Magazines, television and online advertisements, posters, and store windows use attractive women, seductive women, and blatant sexual images to catch a man’s glance and capture his attention.
Every day men walk away from wives, children, friends, parents, siblings—risking career and reputation. For what? Another woman.
Female attraction can be deadly. But death was not our Designer’s intention. Feminine power was intended to give life. Eve, as a woman, was designed to complete her man, to nurture life in him, and to create new life with him through children.
Using your power for good
Many wives do not understand how profound this power is. God has blessed you with a feminine ability that you can use for great good in your husband’s life in four ways:
1. Meet his need for a helper.
Something is missing in every man. And it’s by divine design. After God created Adam, He said, “It is not good for the man to be alone” (Genesis 2:18).
It is astounding that the perfect God of the universe created a perfect human being and then declared, “it is not good.” God intentionally created the first man with a need for companionship.
Man was incomplete. God orchestrated the perfect arrangement for His grand finale of creation: a woman, the “helper suitable for him.” It is still true since “in the beginning” in Genesis, a wife makes a man complete and whole.
Your husband has this same need.
God brought you into his life to be his “helper,” to meet his companionship need. In Christian marriage, this oneness is a unity of mind, body, and soul, and is celebrated through the sexual union.
Lest we women feel somehow superior that we aren’t as needy, we are. We are incomplete without our husbands. We need our husbands to help us become who God designed us to be. Neither can stand alone; as mentioned above, God’s Word makes it abundantly clear “it is not good that man should be alone.” Women must think as God instructs us to in the Bible about our men, ourselves, and our marriages.
Of course, now after the fall of mankind, no one is totally complete without the indwelling presence of Jesus Christ. Further, perfect completeness cannot occur this side of heaven. But in marriage we can touch the holiness of God; we can recapture a taste of what was lost in the Garden of Eden when a hus