Say Something Nice to Sarah

“Husbands, love your wives, even as Christ also loved the church, and gave himself for it; … So ought men to love their wives as their own bodies. He who loveth his wife loveth himself.” Ephesians 5:25, 28

My sister-in-law told the following story to group of men at their church:

As a happy couple was commemorating their sixtieth anniversary, a reporter asked the old gentleman: To what did he give the credit for sixty years of marital bliss?

The contented man pulled out an old worn watch and said, “I give all of the credit to this old watch. On our wedding day, Sarah’s father gave it to me.”

“How did that old watch help you stay together for sixty years?”

The old man flipped opens the cover and showed the reporter the inscription on the inside. It said, “Say something nice to Sarah!”

“For sixty years every time I looked at the time, I was reminded to say something nice to my Sarah – and it worked.”

“These words were like seed. When sown by me, Sarah only increased and returned the words. I have been a happy man.”

God, in His wisdom, made the husband the lover. This does not come easily for men but love and intimacy is exactly what wives need to feel fulfilled. When a husband, ‘nourishes and cherishes’ his wife, she return’s love in the form of respect, submission and caring.

How can you lose with that exchange?

I shared a secret with a group of married couples which has helped me down through the years:

• If you want your wife to fix herself up for you – tell her she’s pretty.
• If you want a neat house – tell her she is a great housekeeper.
• If you like cherry pies – praise every cherry pie she makes!

One of the husbands started to laugh and told all of us, in front of his wife, about the first berry pie she tried to bake on their honeymoon – how runny it was.

I asked him how many years ago that was. He replied, “About eighteen years ago.”

I said, “And, you haven’t got another pie since, have you?”

He reluctantly conceded that that was the last pie she baked.

Husbands, say something nice to Sarah (or whatever your wife’s name is). You’ll like it!