Are You Fit To Be Tied? Part Ii

Illus: When hurricane Andrew ripped across Florida, destroying everything in its path, the President sent the National Guard to help the victims of one of the worst tragedies of recent times in our nation. That was bad enough, but the next shock came when national news reported that one of the guardsmen who had been sent to help during that difficult time, killed three of the victims of hurricane Andrew.

WHAT A SHOCK THAT WAS TO THIS NATION!

What a terrible thing! Yet every day shocking things are happening.

One of these is the fact that couples, who have been married 20, 30, even 40 years, are heading for divorce courts. WHAT A SHOCK THAT IS TO US AS INDIVIDUALS.

We all recognize that because family values are not being taught, domestic problems rank highest in the number of problems we have. Our nation is bankrupt morally. Homes are filled with sin and hate. We must face up to this problem.

Illus: In many cases today, you would think the couple had been married by the Secretary of War instead of the Justice of the Peace.

What ever happened to the good old couples that loved each other and shared everything together?

Illus: This reminds me of the couple that did love each other dearly and they did share everything together. For example, one day they went to get something to eat at one of these almost fast-food restaurants. He ordered: One hamburger, one order of French fries, one drink and one extra cup. They took their order to the table and he very carefully cut the hamburger down the middle, and gave her half and gave himself half. He opened the French fries and very carefully counted them out and gave her one and than gave himself one until they came to the end, and one was left over. He very carefully broke it in half and kept half for himself and half for her. He then took the cup of cold drink he ordered and very carefully poured half of it into the other cup.

Then he began to eat his half while his wife sat with her hands in her lap smiling at him while he ate his half.

A man who saw all of this happening, told his wife, “Honey, that old couple in the corner can only afford to buy one meal. I am going to buy them an extra meal.” He went over to them and told them that he had seen they were dividing everything evenly and offered to buy them a meal so that they would not have to divide.

While the man was eating, the wife spoke up and said, “Oh no, do not buy us another meal. We have been married for sixty years and we share everything equally.” The man said, “But I noticed also, he is eating his meal while you sit there with your hands in your lap smiling at him while he eats. WHY IS THAT?” She said, “The reason he is eating and I am not eating is because he has the false teeth. When he is through with his meal it will be my turn to use them.”

We still have some of these old couples around, but there are not as many as there use to be it seems.

Part I of this series told us of some things from I Peter that are to help us in our marriage.

For example, Peter gave us (three things),

1. A WORD TO THE WISE.

2. A WORD TO THE WISE WIFE.

3. A WORD TO THE WISE HUSBAND.

Today we would like to turn our attention to the book of James to find more things that will help us in our marriages.

Every married couple has CONFRONTATIONS. If we do not learn how to handle these confrontations, we also might find ourselves headed for the divorce courts.

James suggests THREE THINGS we should be:

I. SWIFT TO HEAR

Look at verse 19, We read, "Wherefore, my beloved brethren, let every man be swift to hear..." Among the things that are on the "endangered species" list should be "the listening ear."

In today's fast-paced society you do not find very many people who have trained themselves to listen. As a result, this causes problems that carry over into marriages. There can be no communication if people will not LISTEN TO EACH OTHER.

Illus: Psychologists that specialize in marriage counseling, tell us marriage partners only hear about 20% of what they are saying to each other. If that be true, and we have no reason to doubt that it is, is it any wonder we are having problems in our homes? A lot of assuming is taking place because we are not communicating.

Proverb 18:13 says, “He that answereth a matter before he heareth it, it is folly and shame unto him.”