When I was a kid I was in 4-H and I had a cow as a project. It began when she was a calf and continued for 4 years after “Dawn” had several calves. One of the things that I did was take her to the County Fair and “Show” her. I was in a ring with a dozen other kids with cows of similar age and breed and a Judge would rank tham on the basis of their “confirmation”, and we would get a first place ribbon down to about fifth place. When I was 22 years old I took a cow from our dairy to the “National Guernsey Show” and she got reserve national champion, that was a big deal to me.

Now, I don’t want this to sound like I am comparing my wife, Patty to a cow, I am just using the concept of comparing or ranking. So, let’s suppose a bunch of guys decide to rank their wives, best to worst, and i get picked to be the “Judge”. The obvious first question would be, “what is the standard or the criteria for being a super wife”. Obviously some might say, “looks”, others might say, “how well they cook”, and certainly, “sex” would be included, for sure. Over the last 45 years of Pastoring and doing lots of marriage counseling, I would say that the best criteria for determining a “Champion” wife would be how they talk to their husbands.

Patty and I have been married almost 51 years, and I am declaring her the “Grand Champion” of wives. The reason is that she makes me feel like a “Macho Man”, the worlds best preacher, highly intelligent, and the world’s best Dad and grandpa by the words that she speaks to me. The New Testament says that a wife ought to be a major source of “glory” for her husband, and that she should respect him. Proverbs says that a wife ought not to scold, nag, belittle, or criticize her husband. Someone recently responded to one of my blogs by saying that, “I wasn’t perfect”, according to Patty, I am. Men, as a whole, tend to live up to the “image” that is portrayed of them by those most important to them, and a universal law of relationships says that we all, “work hardest to please the one who praises us the most”, and nobody praises me more than Patty. Yep, she is the Grand Champion of wives, so now I just have to figure out how to be a Grand Champion husband!