WE know she is much more than the mother of your children and your helpmate, but you alone can tell us how much your wife means to you. This week we asked a few men to tell us what they love most about their wives.

Christopher Bryan (married to Janice 13 years with two children)

Jan is my best friend for sure, she has been for well over 15 years. Essentially what I love about Jan is that she is who I call blatantly truthful and she has what I call a fatal sense of honesty. I use those words even though they are contradictory, because Jan is the type of person who will tell you off like in a minute if things are wrong, and in the next five minutes, she is asking you to do her a favour. Regardless of the quarrels or whatever that we might have, she does not hold a grudge. For the most part, we are problem free. We are not pious and we are not paragons of virtue, but we are living happy in the marriage. We are not without our own frustrations, but the marriage is very good.

The next thing I like about my wife is that she operates very well as a partner, so even when the sex, "lovey dovey" part of the marriage is under question, the partnership is never under question. We know who must take up what, who must carry the children to school and those things don't stop regardless of what is happening on the romance side. The other thing I like is that she is committed to family, I could almost call it clannish. For the most part, my wife is a team player, so I love those things, they are the fundamentals that keep things together. But then her beauty, that is just awesome -- she is a sweet looking girl, but for me, I like sweeter virtues on the inside. I think my wife loves the Lord more than I do and that's a competition that I think I cannot outdo.

Duran Daley (married to Diana for one year)

I love many things about Diana, but the first thing is her spiritual conviction, that was the thing that drew me to her -- the fact that she totally loved God and the fact that she is passionate about Him. Second thing is that she is extremely beautiful and I just can't help myself. She also dresses well and that's always a plus for me. She is very intelligent and she is a go-getter, so she possess most of the attributes that I would want in a wife and that's the main reason why I love her. She motivates me to go after what I want. She is passionate, she doesn't take no for an answer and I like that about her.

She can be very forceful in the right areas, so she never gives up. She is very optimistic and so many times when I feel down and feel that it's not going to happen and certain things won't work out, she always finds the right words. She is very inspiring.

Orlando Thomas (married to Denise for five years with two children)

My wife is a person who is dedicated to both her children and me, so I can depend on her in good times and bad times to be there. She is a person who generally loves and is kind to people all around. She is also a Christian person who shares a lot of my beliefs. She is a person who is very neat and tidy, which is the opposite of me, so she complements me in that respect. And then she is a very, very lovely person, from a physical perspective -- she is very attractive and that is also a very important factor in the mix.

-- Nadine Wilson