Are You a Quarlesome Wife?

Today I decided I would do the whole, open my Bible and see what it opened up to.  I prayed, Lord, guide me to the verse that you want me to focus on today.  I would dwell and pray on that and make that my heart’s devotion for today.  Well, the verse I happened to open to and see firs was Proverbs 21:9, “Better to live on a corner of the roof than share a house with a quarrelsome wife.”   REALLY?  I mean come on, for the first time in a long time, I feel like I have been a good wife, and mother.  But this is the verse that I find that I should dwell on?  Grumble…  So I dug deeper.  I really wanted to know what God meant by sending me to this verse.  Maybe it wasn’t the conventional reason.  Maybe it was for a reason that was known only to Him.

So after thinking for a while, I prayed, Lord, I just don’t get it, what is it that you want me to get from this verse?  And then it came to me.  In the Bible, it is strongly implied that the church is to be the Bride of Christ.  The Church is the body of Christ.  We are the church.  There is no distinction if we are Baptists, Methodists, Lutheran or whatever; it says that all who call on the name of the Lord will be saved. WE ARE THE CHURCH.  The building that we worship in is not the church, WE are the church.  And if the Church is to be the Bride of Christ, why do we all fight over the silliest little things all the time?  Why is there constant in-fighting about one small factor?  I have found that not every physical building church is for everyone.  We have been testing out a lot of them lately and I know that you have to find a place that you feel comfortable to worship our Lord and Savior.

Do not fight with your Christian brothers and sisters.  It says in the beatitudes Blessed are the PEACEMAKERS, it say that we are to admonish and teach, but not to fight.  We need to be open and willing to take the admonishment and teachings from our other Christian brothers and sisters and not to strike back at them.  We are to be sure the plank is out of our eyes before we go to take the speck of dirt out of our friend’s.  Who would want Jesus to feel more comfortable on the corner of the roof than sharing a house with the church? 

So it isn’t the traditional message received from this verse I am sure.  It is just what I felt lead to share.  I know that I am not a perfect wife by any means.  If you look around my house – you would know that, but I strive to be a good bride for my husband and to be a good Christian for Jesus and to work with the Church, the body of believers, to love on each other and to share the love of Jesus.  I am not saying that any of us are perfect or could ever achieve perfection.  But maybe there is one person in the body of Christ that we have been at odds with that we need to resolve some issues.  Maybe we just avoid them because we don’t like them.  That is different than talking about them behind their backs and maliciously being rude to them.  Maybe, just maybe, God will reveal where we need to make strides to make peace.  Maybe he will place someone on our hearts that we need to apologize to.  You never know- this is how my husband and I ended up back together (after i dumpded him when we were dating).