"You are so beautiful -- to me..."

I remember a song sung by gravelly voiced Joe Cocker from the mid-1970's titled "You Are So Beautiful."

The lyrics aren't Shakespearean, rather they are quite simple. Marry them with that blue-collar vocalization and you have the heart of a husband enrapt by his wife. I still smile as he strains to hit that last note.

Here are the lyrics:

You are so beautiful, to me
You are so beautiful, to me
Can't you see, you're everything I hoped for
You're everything that I need
You are so beautiful, to me.

Sung twice. That's it.

But how many wives have heard that from their man? Do we lavish such words upon our brides? Brothers, this is a huge issue for our women today. Television, mail ads, newspaper ads, commercials, movies, mall posters. Women can't avoid the larger-than-life images of women with smaller-than-life figures . And you can't avoid them either. And therein lies a clash. You can't really think she's pretty, can you?  Your bride will wonder with all the beauties out there, what do you see in her? That self-doubt, that pain, that uncertainty was captured beautifully in this video:


What makes your woman beautiful? It is who she is. Yes, her skin, her height, her hair-color, her age, her elbows, her knees--all of these things are part of her, but she is so very much more.

Her dreams, her desires.

Her problems, her past.

Her passions, her pets.

Her funny bones, her heartbreaks.

Her voice, her laughter.

Her intelligence, her indignations.

Her grace, her mercy.

If you've been to this site before, you know that your bride is a treasure (Proverbs 18:22, 31:10). Why? It has nothing to do with her conduct. If God presented her to you today for the very first time, you would delight as Adam did the moment he beheld Eve because your wife is a gift from God, a child of his that he has uniquely created in his image that he has presented only to you. She has been fearfully and wonderfully crafted by the Master's hand. Husband, behold your wife. No other man can see what you see. No other man will appreciate all within her that you can appreciate.

Let her know often and with all your heart that she is beautiful. Sing to her literally or figuratively, "Woman, you are so beautiful. To me."

Quote of the Day: Ann Landers

"If you marry a man who cheats on his wife, you'll be married to a man who cheats on his wife."

~ Ann Landers

Stanwyck & MacMurray

Gents, this is a painful truth that cuts both ways.

My bride and I just watched "Double Indemnity" yesterday, a great movie that you might consider the "Fatal Attraction" of the 1940's, a film that keeps you on the marriage straight-and-narrow. In the movie, Fred MacMurray of "My Three Sons" fame plays an outstanding dirt bag, much like Andy Griffith did in "A Face in the Crowd." MacMurray is an insurance salesman who's a little too cool for his own good, and when he crosses paths with a spurned and bored wife, an outstanding Barbara Stanwyck, the two cook up a plan to off the husband and recoup the insurance payout. The only problem? Your sin will find you out (Numbers 32:23), in this film in the guise of a cigar-chomping ("Where are my matches?") Edward G. Robinson.

What do we learn from such quotes and such movies. The grass is NOT greener--it's NEVER greener on the other side of the fence. Husband, if your eyes wander from your bride now to someone who catches your eye and you trash your bride for the sake of a newer model, how long will it be before your eye begins to stray again (really, the heart of Ms. Landers' quote)?

Join me now in taking Job's pledge and make a covenant with your eyes that you will not let your eyes stray (Job 31:1). Satan desires nothing more than to see your marriage lying in ruins and your life devastated. With the power that God provides you, rebuke yourself and take your eyes and flee from those situations that cause you issue. When you hear those whispers that someone else will understand you better than your bride, identify them as the lies that they are (Proverbs 5:3-4, 7:21), and run away.

(**SPOILER ALERT**) I love the old movies because good and evil is clearly portrayed for what they are. Knowing that the wages of sin is death, it comes as no surprise to find MacMurray and Stanwyck dead at the end of the movie at the hands of the other. States may strike down laws that once made adultery illegal, but they cannot change the truth of God's word or the response of man's conscience to that truth.

Husband, love your wife by keeping your eyes upon her and by keeping your eyes upon Christ.