I think you want a wife...

(2008) I received a poem by e-mail this past week and asked its author if she would allow me to post it. The poem is a wonderfully conceived summary of the two paths women choose today. One ends in death, the other in life.

These past few days our home has been graced by my mother-in-law, Margaret West Taylor, who's visiting for the week. As I think about her sacrificial life, I also look around at other women of my own family and church and praise God for their godliness! It's hard to conceive of the full spectrum of leadership these women exert among the sons, brothers, pastors, elders, deacons, and husbands—let alone children and other women—as we watch them lose their lives.

Now then, the poem...

I Think You Want a Wife

Written by, to, and for a woman who thinks far too much of herself to surrender her life for her husband; and ultimately, to God.

I think you want a wife, not a husband.
Someone to join with
you, to make
you into your true self, to follow
you wherever
your heart leads.

A man to validate
your feelings, make
you sure of who
you are.

You realize your full potential.

I think you want a wife, not a husband.
 

 

One to support
your work, to stand by
your side,
affirming, affirming, affirming, affirming, affirming, affirming
affirming, affirming, adoring, affirming, affirming, affirming

to make you feeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeel
Worthy of you

A wife - who worships
you.
sleeps
dreams
wakes
lives
for you.

Who demands no loss of self
no submission
no obedience.

Who is your god?

You
are salvation
a deity
Isis herself

---------------------------------------

Will you be a wife?

Lay
you in the casket

To be one man's
Help
Mate

To follow
respect
submit
obey

Will you stand behind a man?
Purge
you of dignity
you of self-determination

Will you be weak
so He will be strong?

Will you be a wife?
to
one
man

Rid
you of ambition

He
is you now

u
disappear

-Mrs. Joseph Tate Bayly VI

No post on this blog has ever received as hostile a response as this poem.