“Adorn your crown with amethysts of admiration, affection, affirmation, approval, appreciation and attentiveness.”
– NANCY CAMPBELL
Proverbs 12:4: “A virtuous woman is a crown to her husband: but she that maketh ashamed is as rottenness in his bones.”
Pulpit Commentary on Proverbs 12:4: “She that maketh ashamed; “that doeth shamefully” (Proverbs 10:5; Proverbs 19:26); one who is a terrible contrast to the woman of strong character – weak, indolent, immodest, wasteful. Is as rottenness in his bones (Proverbs 14:30; Habakkuk 3:16). Such a wife poisons her husband’s life, deprives him of strength and vigour; though she is made “bone of his bones, and flesh of his flesh” (Genesis 2:23), far from being a helpmate for him, she saps his very existence. Septuagint, “As a worm in a tree, so an evil woman destroyeth a man.” Here again Siracides has much to say, “A wicked woman abateth the courage, maketh an heavy countenance and a wounded heart: a woman that will not comfort her husband in distress maketh weak hands and feeble knees” (Ecclus. 25:23). Thus runs a Spanish maxim (Kelly, ‘Proverbs of All Nations’) –
‘Him that has a good wife no evil in life
that may not be borne can befall;
Him that has a bad wife no good thing in life
that chance to, that good you may call.’”
***
How does a wife make or cause her husband to become ashamed of her? By her not practicing virtuous living. Many husbands, if they were to tell the truth, are covering up their wives’ unvirtuous behaviour displayed within the four walls of their home, making it seem like everything in their family is A-okay out in public. But when the ceiling crashes down or the walls cave in and the outside world gets a genuine look inside, it is shocked. ‘I thought they had it all together.’ ‘They seemed so happy together.’ ‘He’s always said good things about her; she’s always said good things about him; and their children are something special.’ ‘A divorce? What happened?’
What happened is, the wife and husband were pretending; they were putting on a show; they were acting. After all, Shakespeare did say, “All the world’s a stage,” and we’re mere actors. But we do have a choice. We can act our role truthfully, that is by living up to our titles as ‘Children of God,’ ‘Christians,’ ‘Believers,’ ‘Christ-followers,’ ‘ Heirs of God,’ ‘ Joint heirs with Jesus Christ.’
Or, we can adopt the devil’s (father of lies) way of living: disobedience, rebellion, lying, stealing, talking back, rolling the eyes, blowing, disrespect, and the list is never ending.
As wives, if we live up to our Christian titles, then our husband will have no reason to be ashamed of us and can speak truthfully about us to others instead of lying. But if we adopt the devil’s way of living, then our husband has every reason to be ashamed of us and try to hide our rottenness.
The choice is ours.
— Ella Breedlove
INTRODUCING MY NEW STREETWEAR BRAND, Y.A.H. APPAREL
CHECK ME OUT AT yahapparel.net/
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