Passionate Homemaking

While teach­ing piano this past week I was prompted by a little anal­ogy in our music ses­sion that really stood out to me. We were work­ing on the impor­tance of bal­ance between the hands, as there are nor­mally two dis­tinct parts to music, melody and accom­pa­ni­ment. We are always search­ing the music and tones to dis­cover which hand has the melody at any given time, as it should come out singing above the accom­pa­ni­ment in the other hand.

They are both very impor­tant parts to convey the full har­mony of the song. Although the melody is often more promi­nent than the accom­pa­ni­ment, with­out the accom­pa­ni­ment and back­ground har­monies the melody has no sup­port or full­ness. It does not sound as rich and beau­ti­ful with­out this proper balance.

Like­wise, in com­par­i­son, in a mar­riage rela­tion­ship we have two very equally impor­tant roles between a hus­band and a wife, but each has a com­pletely dif­fer­ent func­tion. With­out one or the other we do not have the full array of beauty and design that God cre­ated to be dis­played in the mar­riage rela­tion­ship, which is then a reflec­tion of the Father and Son’s rela­tion­ship in the Trin­ity. If the roles are reversed and the woman is show­ing dis­re­spect in her atti­tude towards her hus­band to such an extend that he feels unwor­thy and unable to lead his family, we have a con­flict of bal­ance. It will sound more like a train wreck than sweet music.

Now every anal­ogy has its falling point, but I do believe God has designed the hus­band to be the leader and pro­tec­tor of the family, a role that will be more promi­nent as the melody in music. He is the leader, he is the man of the house. He is to be known in the gates! But with­out the proper sup­port of the accom­pa­ni­ment, his bride, serv­ing to be his help­mate, encour­ag­ing him in his call­ing, and meet­ing his needs, he will not find such great­ness. He must have a good woman behind him cheer­ing him on.

The irony of this rela­tion­ship is that being the accom­pa­ni­ment as a woman sounds like such a low posi­tion in the eyes of the world. But again, the sym­phony behind the solo instru­ment may appear small and insignif­i­cant on the record­ing but when you see it in live per­for­mance you couldn’t image the solo instru­ment sound­ing like any­thing with­out the back­ground of all the dif­fer­ent instru­ments and tones sup­port­ing it.The woman and any chil­dren that may spring from this rela­tion­ship are called to a high posi­tion of sup­port­ing and believ­ing in the man they are fol­low­ing. With this sup­port, that man will go for.

It is only when I fully sur­ren­der to God’s beau­ti­ful design and har­mony for mar­riage that I find the great­est delight in ful­fill­ing my role as the accom­pa­ni­ment. It is there at Christ’s feet in sub­mis­sion to my hus­band that I find my great­est joy and pur­pose. There is no better place for me than to sup­port and serve my husband!

When we work together in God’s design, our mar­riage will be as music to the world!