Life ends. We are all like travelers passing through a dark and unfamiliar wood at twilight, each of us carrying a lone torch to hold back the gathering night. Looking ahead, one can see - but only for a little way - the lights of those who have gone before us, like a river of distant twinkling stars, before those far-away lights fade and ultimately disappear into a veil of shadows that no eye can see through. What lies ahead, beyond that mysterious dusk? Might there be a welcoming village, where the golden lights of inn windows gleam through the dark, where a warm dinner, a blazing hearth and a soft bed await weary travelers? We cannot say.
Epiphanies Through Life's Journeys
There are some verses in the Bible that I wish God had just left out. Here are a few of them:
A quarrelsome wife is like a constant dripping. (Proverbs 19:13)
A quarrelsome wife is like a constant dripping on a rainy day; restraining her is like restraining the wind or grasping oil with the hand. (Proverbs 27:15,16)
Better to live in a desert than with a quarrelsome and ill-tempered wife. (21:19)
Better to live on a corner of the roof than share a house with a quarrelsome wife. (Proverbs 25:24)
OK, that’s about all I can take right now. When I wrote the book, Becoming the Woman of His Dreams, I surveyed and interviewed men about what they longed for in a wife. One thing that men repeatedly mentioned was their aversion to nagging. Drip, drip, drip. Webster defines nagging as to scold or find fault with repeatedly, to cause annoyance by scolding or repetition. Interestingly, a nag is also an inferior or aged horse. The best remedy to cure ourselves from being a nagging wife, or a nagging mother, or a nagging friend, is to become a praying woman. Jesus invites us to stop nagging our husbands (and others) and begin nagging God!
Here’s what Jesus had to say:
“Suppose one of you has a friend, and he goes to him at midnight and says, `Friend, lend me three loaves of bread, because a friend of mine on a journey has come to me, and I have nothing to set before him.’
“Then the one inside answers, `Don’t bother me. The door is already locked, and my children are with me in bed. I can’t get up and give you anything.’ I tell you, though he will not get up and give him the bread because he is his friend, yet because of the man’s boldness he will get up and give him as much as he needs.
“So I say to you: Ask and it will be given to you; seek and you will find; knock and the door will be opened to you. For everyone who asks receives; he who seeks finds; and to him who knocks, the door will be opened. (Luke 11:5-9).
In the Greek, the words ask, seek, and knock are present participle verbs. The more correct translation would read, ask and keep on asking, seek and keep on seeking, knock and keep on knocking. God invites us to be persistent in our prayers. We can give our worries and cares to God and leave it up to Him to do the rest. “Cast all your cares on the LORD and He will sustain you,” (Psalms 55:22). “Cast all your anxiety on Him for He cares for you,” (1 Peter 5:7 ). If you are married, remember, you don’t want to be your husband’s mother…you want to be the woman of his dreams.
Let’s Pray
Dear Lord, I confess that sometimes I nag my husband…alright, maybe more than sometimes. But Lord, I am determining in my heart to stop nagging my husband and start being consistent and persistent in prayer. My husband is Your workmanship, not mine. Forgive me when I try to yank the paint brush from Your hand and create brushstrokes of my own. I pray that I can be the woman that he needs in order to become the man that You desire.
In Jesus’ Name,
Amen.
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