The Million Dollar Wife

Can I share two experiences I saw this week?

I learned a principle from these two experiences, I call it the Million Dollar Wife principle.

The first happened Wednesday, I was in the temple doing a session, and who else was there? One of the 12 Apostles and his wife. I din't notice them at first. In fact the session was almost over and I was watching couples returning to their seats and I saw one woman who was so beautiful; breathtakingly beautiful, in fact. "That's funny," I thought, "the man she's with looks like Elder_____...wait, it IS Elder_____."

"This is a prophet of God and his wife" I thought, "I'm going to take close notes and learn as much as I can."
I watched them as closely as I could.  They stood out as a couple, but what made them stick out?  I had to pinpoint what they did to make the beauty of their relationship radiate and fill the temple.

First, he led her by the arm like a Duke leading a new Queen to the coronation. His whole demeanor seamed to see, "can you all see this beautiful, wonderful, amazing woman at my side?" I could see that he loved her and that to him, she was the most beautiful creation of God.

I followed the Apostle into the celestial room and watch him go directly to his wife. He sat down at her side, they held hands and prayed silently. As if their unity coordinated every movement, they ended their individual prayers at precisely the same time. The looked up and kissed; twice. It was so beautiful.

Then his wife began to talk and 100% of his attention was focussed on her. His whole body was facing her and his facial expressions seemed to say, "What you are saying is the most important thing in the world." She motioned to her watch and seemed to talk about needed to get to some engagement, he nodded, and immediately rose, took her arm-in-arm, again exactly like a royal escort.

I could tell to this Apostle, his wife was worth far more than and monetary amount, and she knew it.

To him, she was the most amazing, beautiful woman; and because he believed it, she became the most beautiful, amazing woman. She stood out head and shoulders above the other women because he treated her head and shoulders above the other husbands.

Like Johnny Lingo who found "Mohana", the ugliest girl on the island, and turned her into a 10 cow wife. How did he do it? Simple. He just believed that she was worth 10 cows and got her to believe it as well.

Now I'll contrast this story with another which happened not 6 hours ago. I was standing in the foyer looking at the wall where the missionary pictures are kept, behind me I heard a man's voice lash out in a short phrase, "Are you ready yet?" The sentence was stabbed like a sword.

The wife was preparing a tithing slip, and obviously the husband was in a hurry.

The wife didn't answer, but moved more quickly.

"Are you ready yet?" he asked again, his frustration reaching boiling point.

"Almost." She replied, a little on-edge too.

"Well, hurry up, we gotta go." The upset husband said.

She finished the envelope and as she stood up to go he was already half-way to the door. He did hold the door for her, but like one guy holds the door for another until they can take it themselves. Here was no Duke escorting a Queen. They didn't touch as they walked, not arm-in-arm, not hand in hand. They barely talked and their conversation was made up of one sentence phrases, shot like snowballs back and forth. Had the conversation been more intense, it would have been grenades and not snowballs tossed between them.

My heart reached out for them, didn't they know how beautiful marriage can be? I felt bad for the husband, doesn't he know how valuable his wife is?

I won't be too quick to judge. I bet that this husband really did love his wife, and I probably caught them at just the wrong time, but one thing is for sure, at least in that moment for the time that I shared with them, he didn't treat her like a million dollar wife. She definitely didn't feel like a million dollars, she probably felt like she was worth 10, or at least that her husband valued her that little.

How could she look or act like a million dollar wife, when he treated her like a ten dollar one?

I longed to stop them and share my experience with the apostle and have them make up and walk arm-in-arm, looking as in love as newly weds. But that would have been really weird.

These two experiences gave be a good scale on which I can judge my relationships.

Am I treading my wife (someday), my sister, my mom, or my date, like a million dollar woman or a 10 dollar one?

Do they feel valuable and validated, beautiful and amazing while they are with me? Or, do they only feel my frustration and anger?

"A wife is as beautiful as her husband makes her" Jake Steel said.

I'm dedicated to having the most beautiful wife on the planet, and she will know that she is the most amazing, wonderful, beautiful girl in the world.