In the same way husbands should love their wives as their own bodies.
He who loves his wife loves himself.
Ephesians 5:28
Andrew Jackson was a fierce warrior of a man. He fought in the Revolutionary War as a youngster. He fought Indians in Tennessee. He led soldiers into battle. He was a military hero in a great battle at New Orleans. He would become a U.S. Senator, and then the President of the United States: He was a tough, fierce, formidable man.
And yet, Jackson had the most tender and loving relationship with his wife Rachel. He was devoted to her. Whenever he was away from home, he would pine for her and miss her terribly. He wrote the most tender love letters to her.
One of Jackson’s biographers, H.W. Brands, wrote in The People’s President that they were soul mates. “Their affection for each other was of the tenderest kind … The General always treated her as if she were his pride and glory, and words can faintly describe her devotion to him.”
When Rachel died, “A friend recalled that he held her so tightly after death that the body had to be pried from his arms to prepare it for burial. Another remembered that he looked ‘twenty years older in a night.’”
Andrew Jackson was incredibly successful – military hero, U.S. Senator, U.S. President, the most famous and well-loved man in America. But I have no doubt that the highlight of his life was his tender love relationship with his wife. Andrew Jackson understood the priority, the urgency, the beauty of a husband loving his wife.
This is God’s call to every husband. Love her. Love her. Love her.
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