11. How can a husband help his wife to fulfill her role in marriage?

¹¹ It would be very difficult to establish what a Christian wife is worth. In a never-ending manner she will care for the needs of the family and face mountain-like problems with courage second to none. What a blessing, then, to assist such a companion to maturity and to recognize the greater value of a quiet and mild spirit above that of the external braiding of the hair or putting on of gold ornaments! (1 Pet. 3:3, 4) How wise the Christian husband is to help his wife cultivate the qualities she may have that are described at Proverbs chapter 31. You probably have noticed that the wife mentioned in Proverbs 31 is tied in very closely to a home. Wives are generally homebodies. This is their field. A Christian husband may be limited in funds and time, but he can make submission a happy lot if he provides a home that gives his wife pleasure, as well as equipment to care for the tremendous job of feeding, housing and clothing a busy, active family. The Bible book of Proverbs recognizes the wife’s ability to accomplish many things. If given the opportunity, she can make the bare walls of a humble home come to life and radiate the warm cheerfulness of a Christian home. There are certain things they as human creatures would like to have, and husbands should see to it that they have the opportunity to enjoy them. Granting their wish to manage some activity in the home or with the family does not violate Bible principles of submission.

12, 13. (a) Why is homelife so important? (b) How can the husband contribute to a happy homelife?

¹² So a full, continuous understanding between husband and wife makes for contentment, ease of mind and enjoyable obedience to God’s Word in this vital realm of submission. The home plays such an important place in man’s life. He needs it every day. It is his base of operations. It is the meeting place, the most important meeting place for the family. It shelters and protects. It is his own little world. It is where he lives. And to think that for this essential place Jehovah has designed and given to man as his helper the homekeeper. “She is watching over the goings on of her household.” (Prov. 31:27) And even if man does not pay her or say “thank you” for all that she does, it may well be that the rich reward that Ruth could look forward to would be hers too, as expressed in these words: “May Jehovah reward the way you act, and may there come to be a perfect wage for you from Jehovah.”​—Ruth 2:12.

¹³ Not all husbands bring gifts or remember important anniversary dates, but each one can express appreciation in some way and give needed encouragement to this one who works so hard. The course of the submissive wife should be a happy one. One reason is that she gives so much; daily and continuously she is giving. Acts 20:35 declares: “There is more happiness in giving than there is in receiving.” If husbands keep the family spiritually strong, they will have another reason for happiness, as stated at Isaiah 65:14: “My own servants will cry out joyfully because of the good condition of the heart.” According to Proverbs, the entire family readily recognize the value of a happy wife: “Her sons have risen up and proceeded to pronounce her happy; her owner rises up, and he praises her. There are many daughters that have shown capableness, but you​—you have ascended above them all.” (Prov. 31:28, 29)

Wives have much to do with the happiness that should always be found in a Christian husband’s life. All husbands are imperfect; a flawless husband cannot be found in the earth anywhere. (Rom. 3:12) They have many faults. For the most part they, unlike women, are concerned with the weightier matters. They can adjust quite readily. They are not so emotional or moved with sentiment. They may even at times appear to be indifferent. While mother worries about her son climbing trees and would like to stop it for fear of injury, father realizes he is going to climb sometime anyway, and may get hurt doing so, but he will also learn something by it. In men calculation comes before empathy. Men usually rely on the wife to keep in touch with the relatives.

How it contributes to the breadwinner’s contentment to return each day to a home that reflects mildness, quietness and love, to a wife who overlooks his many shortcomings and does not keep a list of faults, who does not give constant reminders that he has not improved but keeps doing the same things over and over again. It brings a great deal of happiness to a man when his wife takes hold of her responsibility as a homekeeper, when she keeps the home clean and orderly, when she prepares wholesome meals, and when she produces things with her own hands, just as the scripture said: “She is watching over the goings on of her household.” (Prov. 31:27) A wife can do little things that mean so much, as little as sewing a button on a shirt.