Marrying the Right Person

My wife celebrates another year on earth today – another year of serving her Savior – another year of love and family. She would say she has been truly blessed by the Lord and my boys and I have been truly blessed by her. In fact, Rachel blesses everyone she comes in contact with.

I’m so thankful that I married the right woman. When you are married to the right person, life is so much more enjoyable and dare I say “fun”. But even as we took the time to get to know each other from many different perspectives and scenarios, for me there was just one thing that I needed to know about Rachel before I knew I could marry her (or for that matter date her). It’s found in Proverbs 31:30…

“Charm is deceitful, and beauty is vain, 

but a woman who fears the Lord is to be praised.” (ESV)

This verse summarizes so many considerations when it comes to choosing the right wife (or the right husband). This verse speaks of priority and it also speaks of character (it’s in essence ranking what the world calls “important” with what God calls “important”). It tells us that a woman’s love for the Lord is to be preeminent.

“Fearing” the Lord carries much more than just ‘liking’ Jesus or having ‘religion’ as a part of your life. It has to do with Lordship. The Bible Knowledge Commentary says that “fearing the Lord” is about “…recognizing God’s character and respond by revering, trusting, worshiping, obeying, and serving Him.”

When a woman fears the Lord, she is a delight to be around. She is resolute in her decisions and doesn’t compromise. She knows Jesus is her first love and everything else must be secondary to His mandates. She is graceful because she’s experienced grace first hand. She is filled with laughter and joy because she knows Who her Savior is and where she is going to after she dies. She isn’t perfect, but she realizes that the world and it’s allurement is fraudulent; a cheap imitation of the satisfaction that the Lord brings.

This type of woman is to be praised above all other women. It isn’t that she’s not beautiful. It isn’t that she doesn’t possess charm. But above these transitory traits that the world constantly pushes the woman of God is praised because she is most concerned about her relationship with the Lord.

When a woman (or a man) cares most about fearing the Lord – there isn’t too much that can’t be worked on figured out. When a fear of people or an allurement to the “charm” and “beauty” of this world supersedes the Lord, that’s when marriage bonds begin to weaken.

Hey guys (or girls) – you want to marry the right person? The most important characteristic must be their love for Jesus/their fear of the Lord. That is truly the number one reason I married Rachel – the one thing that attracted me to her the most was her fear of the Lord. There are many great things about my wife, but that one thing is what makes her the woman that she is.