Marriage is to be a mutually satisfying relationship. We’re focusing in on MUTUAL.
Dr. Suess knows it, “I am weird, you are weird. Everyone in this world is weird. One day two people come together in mutual weirdness and fall in love.”
Companionship is mutual. In the Creation Story, Eve was created as a companion for Adam. It wasn’t good for him to be alone, so God gave him the perfect companion. If Eve had been created first, you can bet there still would have been an Adam. Companionship is mutual.
Submission is mutual. For some reason, in Christian teaching on marriage, many of us read and hear more about a wife’s submission to her husband than the husband’s to the wife. Yet, Ephesians 5:21 couldn’t be clearer, “Submit to each other out of reverence for Christ.”
Sexual satisfaction is mutual. No where in scripture is it written that men want sex more than women. A man should not cut his wife off sexually, nor a wife cut off her husband. Neither deprives the other (1 Cor 7:3).
The way this is fleshed out is typically different. The way a wife is a companion to her husband will often look different from the way a husband is a companion to his wife. Stereotypes might fit your relationship and they may not.
The way a husband submits to wife by “feeding and caring” sacrificially for her will look different than how a wife submits by “respecting” her man.
The way a husband sexually satisfies his wife will look different from the way a wife satisfies her husband. Don’t assume the stereotypes. Ask your spouse and listen.
Discover your mutual weirdness and embrace it!