nounced. After all, it is more than just a truth—it is a fact, "You will be what you are now becoming." The fourth area of concern is, "Would you be able to easily men tion five of your husband's worst faults?" The last time you had a misunderstanding or even a fight, did you call to his remembrance any of these habits that might be displeasing to you? One last ques tion would be, when you had that last little domestic battle, were you the one who felt that you had to be the winner? Quite frankly, to answer "yes" to any of these ques tions, especially the last, could mean that your marriage is on shaky grounds. We must be able to think of mar riage as two Christian individuals in the sight of God. In this realm, success in marriage consists of far more than just marrying the right person. What success in marriage really means is being the right per son. As a believer in the home, where the husband does not know Christ as Saviour, the responsibil ity is more incumbent, weighing more greatly upon you than upon him. That is not at all unfair when you realize the gracious patience someone else may have shown you before your conversion. ADORNMENT We earlier talked about the sub ject of the adornment of one's body. There needs to be great care in this area to be sure. Peter, in a very practical manner, deals with the subject of what women are to wear. I have found that peo ple are always interested in that. Peter tells the wives, "let it not be that outward adorning of plaiting the hair, and of wearing of gold, or putting on of apparel." Page 41
on to be sure. How do we react to these situations? If a husband sees the strange way we react during some crisis which may come into our lives, whether in our home, church or neighborhood, then what of the Gospel of Christ, which pur ports to offer peace? RETRIBUTION Do you store up injuries? Per haps there is nothing more difficult to live with than someone who is always bringing up the past. I am sure you have heard of the man who said that whenever his wife got upset she always got "histori cal." His friend corrected him and admonished, "You mean she al ways gets 'hysterical'." He insisted, "No, I mean she always gets "his torical.' She keeps throwing up the past to me." Aren't you glad that God is not like that? When He forgives He completely forgets. He wipes the record clean. I fully real ize that there are some injuries very hard to overlook. It may have been an indiscretion on the part of a mate. Maybe these things cannot be overlooked. But, in the grace of God, if He has allowed you to re main together for some purpose, then it may be that you are going to have to learn not to store up these injuries. Do you threaten retribution that you are unlikely to carry out? This would be a very bad situation. There is no purpose in it and it will only bring a widening of the gap which may already exist between you and your husband. The third question might be, "Are you fight ing more now than before?" It is strange that when a couple gets older, some of the tendencies that were first experienced in early mar ried life become even more pro
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