Information and inspiration
Partners can be drawn closer together through sharing with each other their experiences, thoughts, desires, longings, plans, and weaknesses. Acts 14:27; Philippians 4:8; Hebrews 3:13; James 5:16; and Isaiah 50:4 suggest ways in which husband and wife can inspire, challenge, and inform each other.
Partners need to move through life hand in hand. Otherwise, the difference in the nature of the task of being a wife and that of being a husband can easily cause them to grow apart.
To illustrate, a wealthy automobile dealer tells his unhappy story. Twenty-five years ago he and his wife were delighted when they received a profitable dealership. He worked hard day and night to build up the business. His wife was busy with the three children. The dealership prospered. As it grew in size, he became busier and busier. Soon he became interested in civic affairs, and for business reasons joined various clubs. As he prospered, his wife was able to have help in the house. She joined her own clubs and various women’s activities. Husband and wife, in their prosperity, developed their own separate worlds. He had very little to do with rearing the family, apart from providing a very comfortable home and plenty of money. Today, twenty-five years later, this gentleman is growing old; his children are gone; and he and his wife have nothing in common. He is a very lonely man, even though he lives in luxurious surroundings.
This need not happen to any marriage. Be sure to take the time to have fellowship together as partners and as a family. You can maintain common interests. You can share reading materials. You can share church activities. You can share the task of parenthood. This is a mutual task, not the wife’s exclusive area. As partners who have a mind to keep in step, you will find ways to accomplish this. Remember that the tendency to build separate worlds is a natural one. To prevent this from happening, you must deliberately and consciously have a plan and make it work.
This lesson closes the section on The Adequate Partner. Our emphasis has been on helps for partners who are purposed in their hearts to establish a sound marriage. These principles will produce few results for those who use them in an attempt to get their own way. They will be truly effective for those who seek a mutual, united, like-minded partnership.