March 8: Contentment and Your Marriage

CONTENTMENT SCRIPTURES

Col. 4:6 Let your speech always be with grace, as though seasoned with salt, so that you will know how you should respond to each person. 

Eccl. 3:7 A time to tear apart and a time to sew together;

A time to be silent and a time to speak. 

Psa. 141:3 Set a guard, O LORD, over my mouth;

Keep watch over the door of my lips. 

Prov. 15:4 A soothing tongue is a tree of life,

But perversion in it crushes the spirit. 

Prov. 25:11   Like apples of gold in settings of silver

Is a word spoken in right circumstances. 

What does the speech of a contented Spirit-filled woman sound like?

She speaks with truthfulness thankfulness, with a gentle answer, praise, with tact, encouragement, a soothing tongue, timeliness and with pleasant words.  (The Heart of the Problem, Henry Brandt)

[excerpted from Contentment: A Matter of the Heart by Karen Horsey / Karen's Kreations]

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MARRIAGE:  The verses above about our tongues certainly can apply to marriage and other family relationships.  The words that come out of our mouths can build up or tear down, encourage or discourage, build love or provoke anger.  Often, when the  seed of discontentment is growing, it is evident in the words we speak.  [For the mouth speaks out of that which fills the heart.  (Luke 6:45)]  

Why are we discontented with our spouse?  Usually we have compared the spouse to another person that we know, or that we have seen (at work or on TV), or that we have imagined.  We have to keep in mind that when we work with people or see them out and about, they are generally on their best behavior, clean, dressed and pressed.  People we see  in the media are airbrushed, heavily made up and scripted.  Our imaginations can take bits and pieces of what we have seen or read about and make them real in our minds.  Don't be deceived.   The grass is always greener, not on the other side of the fence,  but where it is fertilized and watered.

Fertilizing and watering in a marriage includes  being courteous, speaking kindly and  behaving gently with one another.  When  husbands and wives treat each other in this way, they each become more appreciative, caring and contented with the marriage and with each other.  One day at a time, one choice at a time, one word at a time...it's worth the effort.