My friends, while travelling I've ended up staying in quite a few houses of different shapes, sizes and flavors. It sure has had me reflecting. 

Bryce and I have now landed on the island of Gozo, which is part of Malta. It is not too far from Libya and Tunisia. This means it has a middle eastern flavor. 

The house we are staying in, for a month, is a wee stone house. Built in 1430, the owner believes it might be the oldest house on Gozo. It is like a little cave inside. Limestone dust falls on us while we're inside the house, trying to stay cool. And it has a rooftop that I go and sit on in the morning to read my Bible. 

Here is the view from the roof top.

It is like living in Biblical times!

Not only that, but I am literally living and breathing this 'House' series in Proverbs, as I stay in these different places. Now, for example, I am literally sitting on a rooftop every morning, and here we've just looked at this verse:

It is better to live on a corner of the roof than to share the house with a nagging wife (Proverbs 21:9, CJB).

Here's that verse in a few translations:

It is better to live in a small corner on the roof than to share the house with a woman who is always arguing (ERV).

It is better to dwell in a corner of the housetop [on the flat oriental roof, exposed to all kinds of weather] than in a house shared with a nagging, quarrelsome, and faultfinding woman (AMPC).

So, I thought we could look at this verse again --

It's funny that it's a woman who's mentioned here, not a man. Is this scripture talking about a particular propensity that women have? Is it that we talk more, therefore we have a particular propensity to verbalize things in a negative way? 

In our spiritually mismatched marriages, it is tempting to be argumentative, I guess. And us women, because we care so much about our homes -- we're the life and soul of our homes -- can be tempted to be controlling. When it comes to our faith difference, perhaps it is tempting to be negative, critical, fault-finding, and to talk about it with others as well.

The wise woman builds her house,
    but with her own hands the foolish one tears hers down (Proverbs 14:1, NIV).

Negative words spoken about our spouse or children to others literally tears our house down. They are curse words spoken by our mouths that have power. 

They will cause the walls to crumble like the limestone dust that disintegrates. 

My friends, we'll do differently to this! In the SUM community we work together to grow in this area: We aim that our words spoken over our homes be like torrents of life, and that they build our families up. We don't always do this perfectly, but we try. And we want our spiritual houses to be long-standing like this wee house here.

We aim to be people of peace within our homes. We aim for our homes to be an oasis of peace. A place where the Spirit of God is felt.

Lord, let us not be quarrelsome or fault-finding to our families. Guard our tongues. Let us build our houses, not tear them down. And, finally, let our houses be long-standing, lasting for generations.

Do you have any thoughts about quarrelsomeness or fault-finding in marriage, or in a family setting?

What strategies do you have for being less quarrelsome?

What do you do if it's your spouse who is prone to be quarrelsome?

Sending love to you all,

Ann