Peaceful Home

Better to live on a corner of the roof than share a house with a quarrelsome wife. Proverbs 21: 9. 

There are two gems to be drawn from this fountain of wisdom. However, before you begin, you need to have an understanding of two words used in this verse.

The first, is the word, wife. You see the word and immediately think it’s only for men, but you must see it as a word for all.  You are to see the word, wife, as the bride Christ has chosen. The Church is the bride or wife of the Lord. Yes, you are the Church, for Christ Himself has made you His. Husbands, love your wives, just as Christ loved the church and gave himself up for her. Ephesians 5: 25. It is necessary that you clearly understand this meaning of the word wife, in relation to Christ and the Church. In this understanding therefore, you must see you as the Church.  

The second, is the word, roof. The roof of the house in those days carried an area, uncovered, open, and reaching up to the heavens. It would be as a top deck of some modern homes, where one can go to have a panoramic view of the ocean or some beautiful scenery around. The roof then must be seen as a higher place, where there is freedom to enjoy the beauty around.

These are the gems that we are drawing from this fountain of wisdom that makes us richer.

The first Gem Drawn – Better not to live, in the house with a quarrelsome wife. The simple reason is this. The words and ways of the quarrelsome one in the house will cause you to become miserable and perhaps angry, thereby causing you to lose your peace. Here is the chilling truth, which does not always go down well with many minds.  The ways of a person cannot steal your peace, your joy or your sanity. What happens is that you surrender it over to them. You lose it over to them.

You have a house and in it there is this quarrelsome one. Do not live in the house with her. The house is what you once shared, that which you once got along well in but things have changed and it calls for a decisive action on your part. The house is viewed as, the mind. You once were of one mind, living in one faith, and hope, in the one Peace, Jesus. Your Peace was in Him and Him only. But there became a separation of minds and a quarrelsome spirit, with all its ways, which took hold of your wife and the very nature and behaviour drastically changed. The one, who once shared your peace, has become so quarrelsome that you are in danger of losing your peace. You then have to secure your peace by moving out. You do not wait for the quarrelsome mind to remove itself. You remove yourself from it.

What am I saying to you? I am saying that you do not have to be joined to a quarrelsome spirit, you can separate yourself in your mind, heart and spirit, by not taking those ways unto yourself. A quarrelsome spirit will make you lose the peace that you have.      

The second Gem drawn. Better to live on the corner of the roof of your house. The gem is that your house has a roof. The roof represents the higher position, the place where one can retreat and find peace. It is the uncovered part of the house where you cannot just see the heavens over you, but you can look up, look around and observe the beauty of creation. You can see that which brings peace to the heart and soul. Long ago, people went on roofs for rest, for prayer and simply to relax. It was a place that could bring the peace and quiet which the house did not afford.

 It is better to live on a corner of the roof, for you do not need to occupy the entire roof to know this peace.  It is here that one will find the joy of peace, for no quarrelsome spirit will seek to dwell on a roof, when the whole house is available. The roof is your higher place. If the mind that once was shared, is now estranged, if there is this invasion of the evil spirit of quarrelsomeness, then you must not just disassociate with such a spirit, but you must lift your mind to a permanently higher level. There, your mind will keep the peace that it knows.

Focus a bit now on the peace. All that you are being reminded of is that there is a quiet joy, a rest, which oozes out of Peace only. It is the inner, encompassing peace that fills the heart, mind, soul and strength. It is that which no one and nothing can take from you. It is the spirit which peace guarantees. To lose that peace is to forfeit your inner rest.

Draw out these gems, for they are worth more than fine gold and silver. Draw them out, for in so doing you will know all that the Lord’s peace will do for you. To blame a quarrelsome spirit for the loss of your peace is totally unfounded. To use the excuse that you are in the house that is being filled with a cantankerous spirit, is to deny the power of the Holy Spirit within you. You have the power, privilege and presence of the Holy Spirit within you, to remove yourself in mind and spirit from such a source and do what is necessary to keep and maintain your God given peace.  

There is beauty around you, lift your eyes to it, for the house has a roof to which you can go.

Dear Lord, even when within me I feel this unwanted spirit, when I can see the ugliness within and around me, even when I can see the quarrelsome before me, lift me to a higher place that I may not dwell on such. Take me to the place where I will know the refreshing and energizing of You, as my peace. Amen!