Up to the Challenge Again

I am very excited to start my THIRD July of the Honour Your Husband Challenge. In 2007 I came across this challenge through bloggyland and really felt a great impact in our marriage, not only because Sean was getting spoiled and appreciated it, but I felt I got the most benefit out of it, intentionally loving someone for 30 days gives a real boost to how deeply you love them. It’s always interesting trying to come up with what I can do to honour Sean, some of my previous attempts have been very well received, some have kinda flopped before they could be appreciated.
These are the things that stand out to me when I read the definition of honour; to respect, to regard with adoration, have the privilege of being associated with, and having the honesty, fairness and integrity as a wife with honour. This really ties into what I’ve been reading (and learning from) on Pam’s and ValleyGirl’s blogs Bible Study "The True Woman Makeover", based on Proverbs 31. It talks a lot about inspiring something better in our husbands (ties into the verse I mentioned last year 1 Peter 3:1-6), making our home and marriage FIRST priority by spending our energy first on our marriage and then everything else, and fighting the culture of women being the princess/goddess and the men just being the jester/buffoon, and instead honouring our husbands by making them feel like real men. WOW do I have a lot to live up to! I know dedicating myself to this for 30 days isn’t all I’m called to, but it embeds the thoughts, motivations, rewards into my heart so that I can carry it out the rest of the year.
So here are the 5 things I am aiming for this year:
1. BACON! – This sounds funny but Sean is forever asking for bacon, every time I ask input on a recipe he says ‘bacon’. I’m always trying to make his favourite meals to show how much I adore him, and the meals that absolutely make him drool have to have bacon. I started off the month by making him something he asked for, chocolate chip cookies with BACON! Yes, he even loves bacon with chocolate and he LOVED these cookies (quite frankly, I wanted to spit it out when I tasted it). I have a few other bacon ideas up my sleeve, I am going to try and make all the bacon meals I can possibly think of over the next month, including; the bacon wrapped shrimp dish he raved about in Nashville, Aussie Chicken (which has several favourites, bacon, mushrooms and cheese), 4 dozen Sauerkraut perogies with bacon (I’m not making them but I’m buying them homemade as a secret, he loves Sauerkraut perogies and they are hard to find homemade), meatloaf topped with bacon (he loves meatloaf), bacon & eggs, pasta carbonara, and if I can find good steak, bacon wrapped steak. Any good bacon recipes you have, feel free to pass them along :)
2. My Husband Rocks! – I’m going to be advertising this as much as possible. I bought a t-shirt last summer that says “My Husband Rocks” and I intend on wearing it as much as possible, along with the new shirt I’ve bought (that looks like this) that should arrive any day now.

Usually I just wear mine now and then, just for the heck of it or when I’m extra in love Sean that day, but I am going to try to wear these shirts at least 2 times a week! I want the world to know I am privileged to be associated with Sean, I am proud to be his wife, he is a wonderful husband!
3. Rock His World! – I don’t need him to wear the t-shirt “My Wife Rocks” (although that would be nice, lol), but I do want him to feel that way. I want to be a wife that he can brag about, the kind that fulfills every dream and wish he had or has for a wife. I want to be a Godly woman he can admire and look to for guidance, I want to be a woman who inspires him to be the man God wants him to be. I want him to ‘lack nothing of value’ in our life together, I want him to know he and our marriage are always first and that I am spending the best of me on him, I want him to be confident in my contributions to our household, I want him to be grateful for my compassion and servant heart, I want my wisdom and integrity to make him proud. There are probably hundreds of things I can do to accomplish this but it comes down to my own relationship with God and being the woman and wife He leads me to be. I will continue to work diligently at being the clay so God can mould me into a rockin’ wife!
4. He’s Strong Enough To Be My Man! – I’m going to do all that I can to validate his manhood ;) I’m going to unabashedly appreciate and show my need for everything in him that makes him a man. I’m going to make a list of appreciativeness for things that he does, that only he, as ‘my man’, can do. I’m going to try to come up with a list weekly and email it to him at his work email on Saturday mornings so he gets it first thing Monday morning. That of course includes everything from doing the more physical upkeep around our house, to reading all the fine print on all our contracts/bills/etc., to dealing with customer service issues/complaint type things, and for making me feel like a woman (to put it decently :). I’m also going to try to ensure I’m including him on all decisions relating to everything we do for our household. Sometimes I don’t put enough validity in his opinions for ‘minor’ things or ‘girly-oriented’ things, assuming he has no interest, but he should have equal say if it has to do with our home and our life together, and I don’t want to rob him of the power of decision making. I’m also not going to act negatively towards typical guy things, guys have a different sense of humor, they are a little more aggressive (to prove they can protect us I’m told), their sources of entertainment are often much different than mine. So, I’m happily sending him off to his brother’s tonight to watch football, drink beer and probably cuss a little depending on how the Bombers do. I’m not going to complain about all the wrestling and football we watch now that all our shows are over for the summer. I’m going to play video games with him more often. I’m going to not chide him for freaking out on a car that drove in a way that jeopardized our safety. I’m going to let him know we each have our different role, neither of which is more important than the other, and in fact the more manly he is the more womanly I can feel.
5. Fireproof Our Marriage – After we watched the movie Fireproof I knew I wanted and knew we needed to fireproof our own marriage. Not that we’re in trouble, but prevention is the key, because as Smokey says “Only you can prevent wildfires!” I have ordered the Love Dare book associated with the movie Fireproof, and as soon as it arrives (which I hope is soon, it would be very awesome to have during this ‘honour hubby’ month) I plan to go through it as a devotional and an intentional wooing of Sean. Who couldn’t use some intentionally wooing, especially when the ‘wooing’ days are about 7 years behind us? Not only that but with my ‘independence day’ I’ve realized how easy it is to let unhealthy and even dark things into our lives, into our marriages, and they can slowly and unnoticeably eat away at our strong relationships, dissolving the core and leaving the shell to crumble. I want to poison-proof, weed-proof, fireproof, anything-proof our marriage! I want to honour Sean by doing everything I can to ensure our marriage is forever.

Anyone who is looking to strengthen their marriage, I would highly recommend they take up this challenge! If you do, let me know what you plan to do to honour your husband.