Marrital Health

I once heard about a husband and wife who were in an accident together, recouperating in a hospital together in the same room. The wife finds herself getting better, choosing to be positive and overcome the situation, but her husband, disillusioned because of misfortune, stays ill. She doesn't want to be apart from him, she doesn't want to leave him behind, either in physical location or in health, so she allows herself to remain sick enough to stay in the hospital, with him.

It can be the same way with spiritual health. On more than one occasion I have seen a woman hold herself back spiritually because she doesn't want to leave her husband behind. She doesn't want to grow apart from him, be healthier than him, because of the seperation it creates between them. I have done it, and sometimes still do it. It just so happens it's a Biblical principal that men are to be the spiritual leaders in the household, is it no wonder women have this natural inclination to hold back their own spiritual growth so that their husbands can be that leader? I don't know why women think it's so offensive to be led, especially if that's who God has created men to be. He has created us to help men, not in a sub-servient way, but service is something he has made women good at because men aren't perfect, they need the kind of help God created women to be. They need our help to be leaders.

Sometimes I can begrudge the feeling I need to hold back my growth, but I'm beginning to learn, it's not holding myself back if I shift my focus on helping my husband grow instead. I am growing in God by leaps and bounds when my focus is on my husband's spirituality rather than my own.