Can You Wash Your Wife’s Undies?

TRADITION can be so powerful, you know? This reminds me of a man who was so traditionally bound to the extent that he could not even tell his wife: “I love you.” This man stood before the Sunday congregation in one of our branch churches to share his story of how he freed himself from the power of the culture. He was about to go out when his wife came and told him, “tell me that you love me.” He replied, “wetin dey bring that one?” The wife again told him: “Tell me that you love me.” What the man thought was an early morning comedy turned out to be something more serious. His love- starved wife held his trousers and told him, “you are not leaving this house, today, until you tell me that you love me.”

But instead of the man to simply say, “I love you,” he stood still, unable to run away from his captivity and unable to say a simple “I love you.” After some time, the man said he told his wife, “if I did not love you, would I have married you? If I did not love you, will you still be in this house? But she was adamant. After a lot of struggle, the wall of Jericho in the man’s mouth finally fell down flat and he told his wife, “I love you.” And that made her very happy. It made her day.

That is how washing your wife’s undies can make her day. There may be one or two women out there who may not want their husbands to wash their undies because they have been culturally traumatised into submissively believing that a husband is a master; her “oga kpatakpata.” But is he really “oga kpatakpata?” No! He is the head and the leader of the family unit of God’s creation. Part of the leadership role that God gave to husbands can be found in the book of Ephesians 15: 28, which says that men ought to “love their wives as their own bodies. He that loves his wife loves himself.” Verse 29 says, “for no one has ever hated his own body: but nourishes it and takes care of it…”

If you want to grow spiritually and emotionally to the extent of loving your wife, as your own body, start washing her undies as a sign of love and also when the need arises. These are the kind of things that nourish a normal woman. Remember the scripture above wants us to nourish our wives. Men should become real men, strong men and free men; free from cultural bondage. Washing your wife’s undies, which she soaked and could not wash because she was in a hurry or due to ill health cannot turn a man into a weak man. Instead, it makes a normal woman love her man more and care for him more.

Someone may ask: “Bishop do you do it?” Boy oh boy, I do it and each time I do it my wife, Carol is very happy. I even did it this week.