table mountain by night

Proverbs 17:1. Better is a dry morsel and quietness with it, than a house full of boasting and strife.

 

One of the sinister powers of anger and selfishness is to break down a marriage or a home. The famous evangelist of the 19th century, D L Moody said:

 

“The man that comes into my house and runs a dagger through my heart for my money is a prince compared with the son that takes five years to kill me and the wife of my bosom.

 

Similarly the husband who comes home drunk night after night and curses the faithful wife who bore his children and thus kills her by inches is the worst kind of murderer.”

 

There is a guilt associated with the destruction of a marriage for which we will have to give an account before Almighty God. Many people do not stop to consider that it is possible to hasten the death of their fathers and mothers through anxiety and worry. Furthermore God heaps guilt upon those husbands and wives who ruin each other‘s life because of the way they treat one another in their marriages. Children are often maimed emotionally because of this kind of behaviour. It is a form of emotional ‘violence’ and belongs to the sin forbidden by this commandment.

 

Likewise some children grow up ungrateful, self-centred and perverse and so trouble their aged parents that they cause great sadness to them and possibly even early death, through stress. Do we think for one moment God does not see this?

 

There is definitely more than one way to inflict harm on a person and cause great emotional devastation. This kind of behaviour brings guilt and culpability under this Commandment.

 

Prayer:

Dear Lord. Please forgive me.  Please forgive those who are in my mind right now.  You know what goes on in my home. Please help us. Amen