I wanted to write a bit of what was in my chapter this week for Bible study. We are reading "Home Making", by J.R. Miller. This chapter was entitled "The Wife's Part"

"Again, let me say that no wife can overestimate the influence she wields over her husbad, or the measure in which his character, his career and his very destiny are laid in her hands for shaping. The sway which she holds over him is the sway of love, but it is mighty and resistless. If she retains her power, if she holds her place as queen of his life, she can do with him as she will. Even unconsciously to herself, without any thought of her responsibility, she will exert over him an influence that will go far toward making or marring all his future. If she has no lofty conception of life herself, if she is vain and frivolous, she will only chill his ardor, weaken his resolution and draw him aside from any earnest endeavor. But if she has in her soul noble womany qualities, if she has true thoughts of life, is she has purpose, strength of character and fidelity to principle, she will be to him an unfailing inspiration toward all the is noble, manly and Christlike.

Her unwavering fidelity, her tender affectionateness, her womanly sympathy, her beauty of soul, will make her to him God's angel indeed, sheltering, guarding, keeping , guiding and blessing him. Just in the measure in which she realizes this lofty ideal of wifehood will she fulfill her mission and reap the rich harvest of her hopes. Such is the 'woman's lot' that falls on every wife. It is solemn enough to make her very thoughtful and very earnest. How can she make sure that her influence over her husband will be for good, that he will be a better man, more successful in his career and more happy, because she is his wife? Not by any mere moral posturing so as to seem to have lofty purpose and wise thoughts of life, not by any weak resolving to help him and be an uplifting inspiration to him; not by perpetual preaching and lecturing on a husband's duties and on manly character; she can do it only by being in the very depths of her soul, in every thought and impulse of her heart and in every fibre of her nature, a true and noble woman. She will make him not like what she tells him he ought to be, but what she herself is.

So it all comes back to a question of character. She can be a good wife only by being a good woman and she can be a good woman in the true sense only by being a Christian woman. Nowhere save in Christ can she find the wisdom and strength she needs to meet the solemn responsibilities of wifehood. Only in Christ can she find that rich beauty of soul, that gemming and empearling of the character, which shall make her lovely in her husband's sight. Only Christ can teach her how to love so as to be blessed and a blessing in her married life."

It goes on to say that none but Christ will be sufficient to meet the trials and such that are inherant in this life and that "..with his benection and presence the flowers that droop today will bloom frsh again tomorrow, and the dreams of early love will build themselfves up into a Palace of peace and joy for the solace, the comfort and the shelter of old age."

I had read the first part of the chapter last week, where it talked of the wife's first duty in being a keeper of her home, industrious, managing well all her husband entrusts to her in his home, and also of her charge to be generous and warm-hearted. That spoke to me and brought conviction and encouragement, but I did not read the rest until today. And today is when I needed it. Isn't it amazing how the Lord orchestrates even the tiny details of our lives to center our thoughts and our hearts upon Him and on what He would have us to learn and do and remain faithful to? It is humbling and fearful to realize that God loves me enough to pursue my attentions and my progress on this path toward being more like Christ.