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Every podcast from The Light Network—Bible-centered, encouraging, and all in one feed. The Light Network is dedicated to producing Bible-based, culturally relevant content for God's glory.
Hello and welcome to Wifey Wednesdays, a podcast for women who are seeking to be the best wives they can be. I’m your host, Emily Hatfield, and this is the show where the plan is always to do things God’s way, especially our marriages.
I am so thankful you have chosen to be with me for another season of this podcast. I am really excited about what we are going to be studying this season, and I hope that you will plan to join me each Wednesday as we dig into God’s word and strive to become better imitators of our Lord each and every week.
Let me start by saying, this season is really the culmination of all that has been happening on this podcast for the last few years.
As you know, when this podcast began, it was quite different than this. To be fair, I’d been married for all of a year and a half, I knew nothing about being a wife, and I didn’t know where to go other than to scripture and to older women like scripture told me to do.
Some of those first episodes — wow. If I could go back, there are definitely some things I would do differently. But that’s how you learn, right? And as time has gone by, as life has changed, as hardships have come, as mental illness and grief have reshaped my brain — this show has shifted and grown and changed with me. What I thought it meant to be a wife thirteen years ago and what I think now — they’re pretty different. And a lot of that is because I am really, really different. Thanks be to God He’s given me time to grow.
So, when Wifey Wednesdays began, we talked a lot about some really external things - what society and church culture said being a wife should look like and be like. But now, here’s what I think: I think being a wife who is striving to show Jesus to her family is a woman who is wholly devoted to the Lord. She doesn’t compartmentalize her Christianity. She isn’t one way at home and one way at church. She doesn’t speak one way to her husband and another about her husband. She is wholly devoted to Jesus — constantly seeking to be like Him.
And everything else? Whether you stay at home or go to a workplace - whether you homeschool or send your children somewhere else - whether you’re great at cooking or not - whether you have many domestic skills or none — all of that really doesn’t matter. All of it is informed by being wholly devoted to Jesus. When I am wholly devoted to Him, it will change how I act no matter where I spend most of my day. It will impact how I engage with my family and what kinds of things I prioritize. It will infuse my home with grace even when I’m not great at certain things and maybe my husband isn’t either. Checking off all of these so-called ‘good’ attributes or not checking off any don’t amount to anything, really. What matters, at the end of the day, is am I wholly devoted to Jesus. If I am, I’m going to be a wife who is seeking to fulfill her roles in her family. It may look differently in my family than yours, but that’s ok. So long as we’re seeking Jesus and doing what He says — we’re going to be ok.
So, let’s look at a scripture today that I think can help us as we think about what’s coming for the remainder of this season.
1 Peter 3:15 says, “but in your hearts honor Christ the Lord as holy, always being prepared to make a defense to anyone who asks you for a reason for the hope that is in you, yet do it with gentleness and respect.”
I think that’s the key in being wholly devoted to Jesus. First and foremost, I honor Him in my heart. I have set Him in a special place - honoring Him as holy or separate — above everything else. And I make all of my choices because of that distinction, so that when people call me on it - when they want to know why I do things the way I do, or why I don’t do certain things, I can give them an answer based in the hope I have in Jesus. And I will do that with gentleness and respect.
That’s what it means to be wholly devoted to Jesus. I’ve given Him the place of honor in my heart and I make every decision based on His rule as king of my life.
Throughout the season, I want to look at different people who lived this way, and I want to look at different ways to be wholly devoted to Jesus — whether that’s through our separation from sin, our connectedness through prayer, our purity, our devotion, our dedication — there are going to be lots of things coming that will, prayerfully, help you as you seek to give your life wholly to Jesus.
I know that I need these reminders. Because here’s the thing: just because I’m coming up on 15 years married doesn’t mean I’ve got it all figured out. But here’s what I do know: I love the Lord more than I love my husband. It wasn’t always like that. But now that it is, I think I’m probably a better wife because of it. And I want to stay on that trajectory. I want to keep growing closer to my husband, but not closer than I am to God, which means I must keep growing closer to Him daily, too.
So we will focus for the next several months on what it means to love our Lord more fully. To love Him with all of our hearts, soul, mind and strength. And I think one of the byproducts will be that we do a better job of showing love to those around us.
Next week we will begin our study by looking at what it means to be wholly sacrificed — dead to sin and alive to Christ. I hope you’ll join me then, but until that time, remember - love God, love your husband.