Wifey Wednesdays

In this episode of Wifey Wednesdays, we explore why emotional availability matters in marriage and how distractions, selfishness, and unmet needs can create distance between spouses. Following Jesus’ example, we’re challenged to listen well, understand our husbands’ needs, and offer our time and attention even when life feels overwhelming.

Our marriages are meant to reflect Christ and His church. This week, let’s put down our phones, prioritize our husbands, and intentionally seek ways to serve and bless them, trusting God to be our ultimate source of strength and contentment.

In this episode of Wifey Wednesdays, we look at how our words can either strengthen or damage our marriages. Scripture calls us to let the “law of kindness” govern our speech, challenging us to consider how we speak both to and about our husbands. Rather than gossiping, belittling, complaining, or exposing weaknesses, we are called to speak with grace, encouragement, and love—even when there are real frustrations or problems that need to be addressed.

Ultimately, our words reveal what is happening in our hearts. As we spend more time with Christ, He shapes us to speak with the same compassion, kindness, and grace that He demonstrated. This week, we’re challenged to intentionally think about what is good and worthy of praise in our spouses—and then use our words to build them up.

What do we do when we’re angry with our spouse? In this episode of Wifey Wednesdays, we take an honest look at the difference between experiencing anger and allowing anger to lead us into sin. Marriage gives our spouses more access to us than anyone else, which means they often see us at our very best—and our very worst. Yet Scripture repeatedly describes God as “slow to anger and abounding in steadfast love,” giving us a model for how our own anger should be handled. Rather than reacting quickly, assuming motives, lashing out, giving the silent treatment, or taking our frustrations to everyone else, we are challenged to bring our anger to God first and allow Him to shape our response.

Forgiveness is one of the most difficult things we are called to practice, especially within marriage. In this episode of Wifey Wednesdays, we look at what it means to forgive when the person who has hurt us is also the person closest to us—the one who knows us most deeply and has the greatest access to our hearts and lives. From everyday hurts and moments of poor judgment to deeper wounds caused by intentional words, deception, rejection, or other sin, forgiveness can feel costly. Yet Jesus’ words remind us that “with the measure you use it will be measured back to you,” challenging us to remember just how much forgiveness we ourselves continually receive from God.

We also consider the difference between forgiving and forgetting. We may not be able to control what our minds remember, but we can choose what we do with those memories. Forgiveness means refusing to nurture bitterness, choosing love and kindness, and continually surrendering past hurts to God. Ephesians 4:32 calls us to forgive “as God in Christ forgave you”—not begrudgingly, but with the kind of tenderheartedness we have received from Him. Through the work of the Spirit, we can continue choosing forgiveness, even when it is difficult, because God’s ways are always worth choosing over what feels easiest in the moment.

In this episode of Wifey Wednesdays, we continue our journey through Ephesians 5 by exploring two foundational qualities God calls husbands and wives to cultivate in marriage: love and respect. Paul points us back to Christ and the church as the pattern for our marriages, showing us that a husband’s biblical love is meant to look like Christ’s compassionate, sacrificial leadership, while a wife’s respect is not rooted in fear or intimidation, but in reverence for the God-given role her husband has been called to fulfill.

This episode considers what it looks like to respect our husbands in the everyday moments of marriage—not belittling, nagging, gossiping about, comparing, or making them the punchline, but instead encouraging, honoring, and building them up.

For husbands, the calling is equally high: love your wives as Christ loved the church. That means sacrificially protecting, cherishing, nourishing, and pursuing what is ultimately good and holy for your wife and your family. When husbands love like Christ and wives respect and submit as to the Lord, marriage becomes a beautiful picture of Christ and His church. In a culture that so often distorts God’s design for marriage, we are challenged to be intentional about living differently—to fix our eyes on Jesus, resist the patterns that undermine our homes, and faithfully fulfill the roles God has given us. The goal is not simply to have a successful marriage, but to use our marriages to show the world who Christ is and how deeply He loves His people.

In this episode of Wifey Wednesdays, we take a closer look at one of the most contested aspects of God’s design for marriage: headship and submission. Looking at Ephesians 5 alongside the example of Christ, we see that biblical headship is not about control, domination, or having the loudest voice—it is about sacrificial leadership, protection, provision, gentleness, nourishment, and care. Husbands are called to model their leadership after Christ, who loved the church enough to give Himself for her.

Wives are called to model their submission after Christ, who willingly humbled Himself and submitted to the Father’s will. Submission does not mean weakness, silence, having no opinions, or obeying a husband when he asks us to disobey God. Rather, it is a willing posture of humility and service rooted first in our submission to Christ. Through examples like Abigail, Esther, and others, we see that godly submission can coexist with wisdom, strength, courage, and action.

Ultimately, God’s design gives husbands and wives different roles while maintaining equal value before Him. As we seek to live out those roles faithfully, may our marriages become places where Christ is seen more clearly—through sacrificial headship, willing submission, and a shared desire to do things God’s way.

Marriage is designed by God to be more than simply two people sharing a life—it is two becoming one. In this episode of Wifey Wednesdays, we explore what it means for husbands and wives to truly belong to one another, embracing the unique closeness, trust, vulnerability, and intimacy God intended for marriage. This intimacy is not merely physical; it encompasses the merging of our lives, goals, finances, emotions, and even our autonomy as we move from “me” to “us.” When cultivated with mutual honor, care, and respect, this unique bond becomes a beautiful gift that provides safety, security, and connection within the marriage.

Ultimately, our marriages are not about us—they are about glorifying God and helping one another see Christ more clearly. We consider what it means to honor our spouse, serve rather than control, protect the sacredness of marital intimacy, and resist the ways the world has distorted God’s good design. Whether your marriage is thriving or hurting, this episode is an encouragement to pursue God’s pattern for becoming one and to pray for marriages around us. May our marriages point both our spouses and the watching world toward the love of Christ and His church.

In this episode, we go back to Genesis 2 to explore God’s foundational design for marriage: leaving father and mother, holding fast to your spouse, and becoming one flesh. “Leaving” doesn’t mean abandoning or dishonoring your parents—it means recognizing that marriage creates a new family that should be prioritized. We can bring the good things we learned from our families of origin into our marriages, but we must build our own home together rather than simply continuing the traditions and expectations we grew up with.

And leaving and cleaving isn’t just a decision we make on our wedding day. Throughout every season of marriage, we have opportunities to choose our spouse, cling to one another, and keep other voices in their proper place. Wise counsel from parents and others can be a blessing, but ultimately our marriage belongs to us, our spouse, and God. Because marriage is meant to reflect Christ and His church, we are called to continually choose each other, protect our union, and hold fast to the one God has joined us to.

A healthy, Christ-honoring marriage doesn’t begin with learning how to love your spouse better—it begins with learning to love God more. In this episode, we look at Colossians 3 and consider what it means to make Christ our life, allowing our relationship with Him to shape the way we love, serve, forgive, and care for our husbands.

When we put our spouse in the place that belongs to Christ, we place impossible expectations on them. But when we seek God first, His heart begins to shape ours—and we become the wives we were created to be.

Our marriages are beautiful gifts from God, but the gifts were never meant to replace the Giver. Love God. Love your husband. In that order.

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In this deeply personal episode of Wifey Wednesdays, Emily Hatfield shares candidly about spiritual discouragement, lingering grief, postpartum depression, and the sustaining power of God through life’s darkest seasons. Through Scripture, personal testimony, and encouragement for Christian community, this episode reminds listeners that while we may fall apart on our own, God faithfully holds us wholly together.