Take time to celebrate your wife

October 29, 2007

By John W. Kennedy

“A wife of noble character who can find? She is worth far more than rubies” (Proverbs 31:10, NIV).

I believe it’s important to let my wife know I appreciate her. This is especially true on special days, such as our anniversary or her birthday. We took a Caribbean cruise on our silver wedding anniversary and it will be something we’ll always cherish.

We don’t take such an extravagant trip every year. But a vacation, whether an overnight getaway or continental tour, can help keep a marriage vibrant.

It’s not that spending is the answer to making a marriage happier. And a trip isn’t something to go into debt over as a way to reward yourself for hard work.

But 51 weeks of the year we stick to routines — out the door at 6:30 in the morning for work, in bed by 9:30 at night. For one week of the year we can live it up, do something that doesn’t require a schedule, and have meals that aren’t part of the normal menu. In other words, enjoy life.

For the past couple of Octobers we’ve stayed a week in a condo thanks to the generosity of North Carolina Pastor Wallace Phillips. Eating fresh scallops, shrimp, tuna and clams is something we can’t do in Missouri every day. Crowds are gone that time of year in the Outer Banks, and usually the hurricanes. But the weather is still warm enough to be on the sandy shore of the Atlantic Ocean.

We’ve enjoyed pleasures such as looking for shells on the beach, feeding seagulls, or splashing in the surf. We’ve heard the waves from our condo, witnessed dolphins jumping in the water, gone kayaking, and seen wild horses running on an island. Driving to our destination we saw red, orange, gold and yellow leaves on the trees of the Great Smokies in Tennessee. We saw rice and cotton fields while still in Missouri.

It’s easy for husbands to react like the onlookers who became indignant when the woman at Bethany anointed Jesus with expensive nard (Mark 14:1-9). (Maybe we should spend that vacation money on something more practical, like a 235-piece tool set and solid maple industrial workbench). But an investment in marriage is a wise one in this day when so many relationships go sour.

John W. Kennedy is news editor of Today’s Pentecostal Evangel.