Here are few major ways a wife can influence her husband to take his place of leadership in the house:
- By remembering the fact that she, the wife, is in her husband’s life because her husband is the one who needs help. God said, “I will make a helper suitable for him”(Genesis 2:18b) Only a person with a need needs a helper. A person who doesn’t need any help doesn’t need “a helper”
- Knowing that husbands are only willing to do things that their wives appreciate and admire. So, the things that earned him more appreciation and admiration from his wife, a husband tends to do those things often.
- Knowing that husband and wife are created by God equally but “differently.” Just because she wants to make her living room color red, matching the carpet and the sofa with her wall color, she has to remember that, for her husband, that color “matching thingy” mean nothing. So, if she sees him bringing yellow rug to the house, she shouldn’t criticize his choice of color. Instead she is to appreciate him for the fact that he remembered to buy a rug that she was talking about.
- Knowing that her man doesn’t subject himself to things that expose him to criticism and nasty arguments. So, anything that brings arguments and fights with his wife, he avoids it. That means, little by little, he leaves everything in the house to her control and he comes home to eat, watch TV (be on his laptop) and if he wants, to have sex.
- Knowing that a wife has ability to enable her husband to be a couch potato in the house as she keeps saying, “You know what? Never mind! I will do it myself on my way.”
- Reminding herself that there are always two ways of doing one thing: Her way and his way and she has to be willing to accept his way of doing things (the way he lined up the plates in the dishwasher, or the side he chooses to put the toilet paper)
For more, I recommend to all wives to read “Sacred Influence” by Gary Thomas and “Finding the Hero in Your husband” by Dr. Juli Slattery. ///