Should Wives Obey Their Husbands?

Team “Us”

Most people I know believe marriage is a team effort between two equals and that husbands and wives work together in all aspects. This is totally compatible with wives who obey their husbands because there is a balance to be had in marriage; one that comes from each spouse desiring to please the other. If the things a wife does each day are targeted to please her husband and not merely serve herself, it has an amazing effect in that it makes him want to please her even more. I’ve seen this a thousand times in my own marriage. It is this kind of loving reciprocation that sustains a marriage, especially in difficult times.

There are other “hints” in the bible that suggest a husband is the head of the family and the wife his helper, according to Father Shannon M. Collins, CPM. He points out that in Genesis 2, we see that Adam was created first and was given dominion over the entire earth and all its inhabitants. It was only after Adam’s experience of profound loneliness that Eve was created. Is this a slight to women? No, on the contrary, it is a great compliment. Adam could not experience completeness by himself, he needed Eve to make him whole and this indicates the critical role a woman plays in a man’s life. But it also shows us the bigger picture of God’s creation of man; He created the head of the family first and then his life companion second.

Another meaningful indication is found here in this story, and that is while God created Adam from dust, He created Eve from Adam’s rib, a place very close to his heart which points to a woman being the heart of the family. This image indicates a sort of loving docility of the wife to the husband.

Overall, having a successful marriage takes effort on the parts of both husband and wife, and there are many attributes that need to be present: sacrificial love, total commitment, mutual trust to name a few. Both spouses should always put each other first in order to achieve the harmony that is created by a team who works together and shoots for the same goal, namely, getting each other to heaven.

This article was originally published at the CatholicMatch Institute.