Love and Marriage: Belittling and Henpecking

"She openeth her mouth with wisdom;
and in her tongue is the law of kindness."
Proverbs 31:26

 
Am I My Husband's Teacher?
I respond with resentment and irritation whenever my grown children speak to me as though I were their child. Why?  My thoughts go something like this, "Don't they know who I am?  I'm the mom.  It's not respecting my position when they try to tell me what to do, or speak to me in that condescending way as though I were a small child!"

Where do they get that from, anyway??  Well, I don't have to look too far for an illustration from my own life, of where they get that from.  How often do I, as a wife, try to "teach" my husband some very simple, and "obvious" lesson, using dripping sarcasm, a rebuke, a putdown, or a tone I would reserve for a five-year-old?  How often, indeed? Chastened, chagrined, I purpose in my heart, while asking forgiveness and help from the Lord, to speak less, and when I do speak, to let God teach my husband, and not me.

Silence Is Golden? May Be!
Here is an excellent article, though convicting, which relates to my comments above, entitled, "Warning Signs That You're Talking Too Much," from Exemplify Online magazine.

Do you know what "henpecking" is?  You may not be able to define it, but you've seen it.  Here is an article found in a secular newspaper, by Dan Howe, in his column called "Here's Howe" on the subject of henpecking, which every wife would do well to read.  (Lord, deliver us from ever henpecking our husbands.)

"In the multitude of words there wanteth not sin: but he that refraineth his lips is wise."

Proverbs 10:19

"There is that speaketh like the piercings of a sword: but the tongue of the wise is health."
Proverbs 12:18