MEN,
AND THEIR WIVES

I DON’T know if you’ve seen one but there are square watermelons now. Of course people are trying to figure out how making a square watermelon is possible. Normally the fruit is oblong. But, somebody somewhere decided to try growing a watermelon in a square container. The idea was to control the size of a watermelon so that it can easily sit in the refrigerator. They force the watermelon to readjust from its natural tendency to become oblong, to a new shape determined by the environment.

If a man feels like he’s got an oblong wife who’s going in the wrong direction, maybe the environment she is growing in doesn’t allow her to change her natural shape. A husband has the power to set the tone and to change the environment.623

[Marriage; Spiritual Transformation]

Rom. 12:2; Eph. 5:25–33

WINSTON Churchill and Lady Astor both served in the British Parliament, but they could not stand each other. Winston Churchill couldn’t stand Lady Astor and Lady Astor couldn’t stand Winston Churchill. One day, Lady Astor went up to Winston Churchill and said, “If I were your wife, I’d put arsenic in your tea.” Winston Churchill said, “And if I were your husband, I’d drink it.”

Many men feel that to go home is to go to the local graveyard, because that’s where death lives.624

[Marriage, Unhappiness in; Women, and Their Husbands]

Prov. 21:9; 21:19; 27:15

MEN must be careful to purposefully honor their wives. If not done purposefully, time and familiarity have a way of wearing down even the nicest guys.

It’s like the guy who married the lady who caught a cold every year of their marriage. The first year he said, “Sugar, darling, this cold is making you mighty uncomfortable. Why don’t you let your lover boy take his baby to the doctor to get rid of this nasty cough?”

The second year of marriage he said, “Darling, that cold seems to be getting worse. Why don’t you go call Dr. Miller?”

The third year of marriage he said, “You better lie down and rest with that cold before the baby wakes up.”

During the fourth year of marriage, he told her, “Be sensible now and take care of that cold before it gets any worse.”

By the fifth year of marriage, he would say to her, “You’ll be all right, just take some aspirin. By the way, how about ironing these pants for me to wear today.”

Six years into marriage, the husband would tell his wife, “Would you do something about that cold and stop barking like a seal?”

By the seventh year of marriage he sounded something like this: “Woman, do something about that cold before you give me pneumonia.”625

[Love, Lack of; Marriage; Women, and Their Husbands]

Prov. 18:22; Eph. 5:25–33; 1 Peter 3:7