Being a Wife - Heterosexual or Not?

Thank you to everyone that has sent their thoughts in, I wanted to discuss a few comments here before we continued.  Here is one reader's comment:

"My opinion? Rather than asking what being a wife is, which assumes marriage and a heterosexual couple, I think more important is asking what being a partner is.  That comprehends wives, husbands, married couples or not, same sex or not, wedd...ed according to religious views or ...not - all equally valid expressions of love and ways of sharing your life with someone important to you. And that means sharing joys and responsibilities, making each other laugh, doing things together and also having individual moments, being there for good and bad times, being supportive and sharing opinions and being tolerant of different ones, respecting and being respected. It's great!!"

I think that some of the things that were said here are really valuable and true in any relationship.  The thing that I would like to pick up on is that of being a partner as opposed to a wife.  Our aim in this year's focus is to find the truth, based on the Bible, about what it really means to be a woman.  When we were created God had a perfect plan.  His perfect plan guaranteed a perfect life and pure joy of every sort.  Sadly human beings messed up God's wonderful plan by choosing to disobey His one tiny little request - do not eat of one specific tree in the garden! Since then we have been separated from God and His perfect plan for us, thankfully He sent Jesus to fix the mess and make a way for us to be reunited to God. Although we have the option of reconciliation we still have to live in the messed up world that resulted from Adam & Eve's mistake!  This is where the Bible comes in, it is the handbook to life and helps us find out God's perfect plan for us. This is why we are going to explore the Bible over 2011 to find out exactly what His perfect plan is for women.

On this basis I am going to have to disagree with the thought that we should be exploring 'partner' as opposed to 'wife'.  'Wife, which assumes marriage and a heterosexual couple', is the only sort of wife mentioned in the Bible.  It is crystal clear that any other sort of relationship is not God's perfect plan and I really, with all my heart, want to find God's perfect plan.  It's not that I judge anyone who has decided to live a different lifestyle, it is completely your choice and I am friends with many people who lead all sorts of alternative lifestyles.   I have homosexual friends whom I love dearly, I have friends that are unmarried and live together whom I love dearly too. These friends can vouch for my sincere love for them as people :) but as far as this 'Being a Woman' series goes, we are going to make the default assumption that when we refer to wife and marriage I am writing on the basis of a heterosexual couple only.

Thank you so much for your response to this series, if you wish to discuss your opinion on being a wife then please leave your comment below or if you wish to remain anonymous please email to me.