Growing up with horses all of my life I heard the word "groom" quite frequently. For me, it meant that every day of the summer and many days in winter I had to curry and brush from five to thirty horses. I had to oil the manes and tails and carefully pull the burdocks out of them that were such a balled-up tangle it sometimes took hours. It meant making sure the horses were fed on time and always had water available, were sheltered in the winter, and had the sweat hosed off in the summer. It meant checking daily for cuts and lamenesses and doctoring wounds even when the horses fought me because of the pain they were in. Horses that are priced at hundreds of thousands up to millions of dollars often have a team of personal grooms that spend their entire days, weeks, months, years meticulously caring for every need and desire of one horse because it's life is so valuable.
So why is the guy who stands opposite of the Bride at the alter called a Bride Groom? Now, don't you smart alecs say because she's a horse, LOL!!! You see he's called a Bride Groom because he's to care for the Bride as attentively as the high priced horse grooms care for their horse.
The Bride Groom is to value her life. He is to make sure she has enough work, recreation, and rest to be healthy and happy in spirit. Any imbalance produces a sad even cranky attitude and that says a lot about how poorly she is being "groomed". He is to observe her gifts and potential and help her to become all that she was created to be. He is to study the Word of God so that when she is needy he can wash her wounds with the Word. He is to bring healing to her heart and protect her from the abuse of others including her own children. There is a time when the "Groom" must go face to face with his teenaged son and say, "You will not treat MY WOMAN that way or you'll answer to me.
Horses are not easy to understand because of their free spirit and varied personalities and neither are women. But if a man believes he is mature enough to be a "Groom" then he had better put the effort out to understand her and meet her needs above his own. Horse grooms work till they are sweaty and exhausted, stay up all night or sleep in the barn, bathe swollen legs for hours and wrap them daily. God says your wife is more valuable then piles of gems. Are you "grooming" her with that in mind?