21ST CENTURY WIDOWS

 

I was thinking this morning.... while still enjoying all the messages from Fathers Day last Sunday, I was feeling like a superman. I thought this feeling would last for another year but as I made to walk downstairs last Thursday, I glanced at the TV and saw the headline 'International Widows Day 2021.' Really? Why would International Widows Day be fixed on the heels of Fathers Day? Are they passing a subtle message to men? But wait? Do we even have a day for widowers?

By definition, a widow is a woman whose spouse has died, but I learnt long ago that it is not physical death that makes a widow. The way a man treats his wife determines if she will see herself as a widow or not. A couple was attending a religious event when the pastor called for widows to come out for prayers. The woman stood up and was about to walk out when the husband held her back and asked 'I am here and you are going out as a widow?' She looked at him and said 'How am I better than a woman whose husband is dead?' Ahhh!

In this century, there are varied forms of Widows. The wife of a man that spends his days and night outside with friends or at work and has no time for his family is nothing but a 'Matrimonial widow.' A man that cannot provide for his wife and children and makes no effort to do so has turned his wife to a 'Economic widow.' What about those men that spend time at home but will never be seen in the company of their wives at social events, not even in church? They have made their wives 'Social Widows.' I heard of a man that has only been intimate with his wife 5 times in 8 years. Wow! When a man deprives his wife of intimacy and prefers to sleep with all sort of 'soyoyo' or 'Chidinma of the Super TV CEO fame,' he has made the wife an 'Intimacy widow.'

As the world celebrated International Widows Day, a United Nations ratified day of action to address the poverty and injustice faced by widows, on June 23rd, I appeal to all men that have been treating their wives unfairly and as such made them semi-widows, to have a rethink. Every woman deserves to enjoy the love, warmth and blessings that come with marriage for as long as the husband is alive. Anything else or less, will make her feel like a widow and God, we know is the defender of widows (Psalm 68:5).

Stay hopeful. God's got your back.

Happy Sunday.,

......Just the thoughts of a certain Wey Mey