GOD'S HOMEWORK ASSIGNMENT FOR WIVES -- Devotional for August 11, from "Good Seeds"

Be good wives to your husbands, responsive to their needs. There are husbands who, indifferent as they are to any words about God, will be won to God apart from words, as they are captivated by your lives of holy beauty. (I Peter 3:1-2)

It is a proven fact that women have it over men hands down in the verbal communication department. Studies have shown that not only do little girls learn to talk sooner than little boys (who say all they want to say through their feet and fists), but the fairer sex continues throughout all stages of growth and development to dominate their male counterparts, if not in ability, at least in loquacity, in drawing upon the gift of speech to the greatest possible degree. Just read any Jane Austen novel, or view one of the popular movie adaptations, and you’ll see and hear colorful evidence of this fact. This being true, what God is suggesting through the inspired pen of the apostle Peter is no easy task for the ladies. Some might dare to suggest we’re talking more like a miracle here (not I, of course, unbiased gentleman that I am!) to expect wives to clam up in the presence of husbands who constantly say it, do it, or get it – wrong! Leave it to the irony of heaven to teach us that man’s way (or in this case, woman’s way) can never accomplish God’s will. Jesus said, “Whoever wishes to save his life shall lose it, but he who loses his life for My sake and the gospel’s shall save it” (Mark 8:35). To win the fight, turn the other cheek. To gain the crown, lay it down. Lose to gain. Winners are losers, losers are keepers. And just as James taught that “the wrath of man will never reflect, nor produce, the righteousness of God” (1:20), so the words of women will have little effect on men regarding the Word of God. If they want to have a deep and lasting – and godly – influence on their husbands, wives will have to lay down the weapon they are most comfortable with, and most skillful in wielding – their tongues – and use another one, one God will provide, instead. Now someone might say, “Of course women have a stronger weapon than their words, and that’s their looks, their sex appeal.” Peter anticipated that argument, and refuted it, in verse 3: “What matters is not your outer appearance – the styling of your hair, the jewelry you wear, the cut of your clothes, the shape of your body – but rather your inner disposition.” Oh it’s all too true that with these things a woman can have her way with a man, but it won’t be God’s way, and therefore will not bring lasting happiness to man or woman, or glory to God. How can we define and describe what God means by “lives of holy beauty”? That’s a tough one, but it is God’s homework assignment to every wife. And when she gets it right, she’ll get an “A” both from her husband and her Lord!