Are You Building A Home Or Tearing It Down

If you’ve ever felt like modern marriage advice is built to make you feel good instead of helping you get better, we’re going back to a standard that doesn’t bend. We start with 2 Timothy’s warning about “itching ears,” then ask a hard question: are we letting culture, social media, and friends shape our view of marriage more than Scripture does?

We connect the dots from marriage to family values to national strength, including Ronald Reagan’s reminders that the family teaches moral vision, responsibility, and loyalty. If the family is the cornerstone of society, then marriage is the load-bearing wall, and what happens inside the home doesn’t stay private for long. A weaker family culture leads to a weaker nation, and we argue the only durable fix is returning to the principles of Jesus Christ.

Then we get practical and specific. We read and apply Ephesians 5, 1 Peter 3, Colossians 3, 1 Corinthians 7, and Genesis 2 to talk about leadership, submission, respect, sacrificial love, honor, and why a husband’s prayer life can be hindered when he mistreats his wife. We also address physical intimacy as part of “one flesh” unity, why refusing each other opens doors to temptation, and how constant conflict can spread like cancer through kids, church, and community.

If you care about Christian marriage, biblical marriage roles, and building a home that actually lasts, listen all the way through, share it with a couple who needs clarity, and subscribe, rate, and review so more families can find it.

#RonaldReagan 

#Marriage

#Bible 

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Transcript

Scripture Warning And Opening Prayer

SPEAKER_02 0:02

Second Timothy chapter four, starting with verse three. For the time will come when people will not put up with sound doctrine. Instead to suit their own desires, they will gather around them a great number of teachers to say what their itching ears want to hear. Hey folks, this is Jesse Coop, back with another episode of America's Christian Heritage Podcast. Sure do appreciate y'all joining me here, giving me a little bit of your time and attention, a little piece of your day. I will try and use it wisely for those of y'all that continue to uh share this podcast and the American Soul Podcast with others, tell others about it. Thank you. Uh I appreciate that for both podcasts. Uh for those of y'all that have also found the countryside book series that have shared that with kids, grandkids, friends, relatives, and left reviews online. Thank you very much for that. Most of all, for those of y'all that continue to pray for me and my family and the podcast and the writing. Thank you very, very much. Very grateful for your prayers. Father, thank you for today. Thank you for you, Father, and your son, Jesus Christ, and your Holy Spirit. Thank you for your love and your mercy. Your grace. Your forgiveness of sins. Thank you for the many blessings you bestow upon us that we just simply don't tell you thank you for each day, Father.

SPEAKER_01 1:43

Clean air to breathe, clean water to drink, running water. Healthy loved ones.

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The liberty that we enjoy. Standing up for what's right. For being more afraid of men or women than we are of you. Be with those listening to the podcast, Father, please surround them with your angels. Protect them from evil of any God. Guide their thoughts and their words and their actions. Bless their marriages, their children, their nation, wherever they are around the world listening. Be with our leaders in the pulpit and in the state. Give them wisdom and courage. Help them to lead and rule in fear of you. Be with our military law enforcement firefighters, EMS.

SPEAKER_00 3:19

Guide us, Lord. Guide my words, sir, please.

SPEAKER_02 3:22

Your son's name we pray. Amen.

Marriage As The Family Cornerstone

SPEAKER_02 3:26

So I've had a half a dozen ideas bouncing around in my head as I was getting ready for this podcast. I don't know exactly how it's gonna go. We were gonna finish up uh the marriage verses that we started on the previous podcast because that's so important, fundamental to our nation, right? Um the quote that we used last time from Reagan: the family has always been the cornerstone of American society. Our families nurture, preserve, and pass on to each succeeding generation the values we share and cherish, values that are the foundations of our freedoms. That was from uh 1982 President Ronald Reagan. So if the if the family is a cornerstone of society, the marriage has to be the cornerstone of the family. And the cornerstone of the family has to be God. I mean, if the marriage has to be God, and so you know, the best place to go look is God. Um, but as I was getting ready for this, a couple things came across my plate. One of the reasons that we read the verse out of Timothy at the start is because I had somebody come on to talk about the countless millions uh that have been slaughtered by Christians throughout the centuries. And particularly they were really referring to America, so over the last two or three centuries. And of course, you go and you look at that, and you have to say, if you read even a little bit of history, okay, well, where's where's the slaughter? Where do you see the genocide that you see with the Muslims? Where do you see uh the slaughtering of their own citizens like you do with the communist Chinese and Stalin, Lenin, Soviet Russia? Uh where do you see the slaughter of Jews, gas chambers, etc., concentration camps, like you do with Hitler and the Nazis? And of course the answer is you don't. And and so that verse kind of popped into my head, but it applies to marriage too. One of the an echo chamber, right, is great if if you're just echoing the truth. So if you surround yourself with people who follow God, who have uh strong biblical views on marriage, on life, on politics, it's etc., that's a positive. When you end up in an echo chamber where there's lies, that's a negative, right? An echo chamber of the truth makes makes everything better, makes makes everything stronger. An echo chamber where there's lies makes everything worse, weaker, right? You're either getting closer to God and Jesus Christ, closer to the devil. It's one of the reasons it's so imperative for us as Christians to read the Bible constantly each day so that we don't get deceived. Uh because otherwise we're going to surround ourselves with people that are telling us what we want to hear instead of the truth. So, and there was there was something else that that came across my plate. Um, I don't even remember what that was earlier, but there was one more thing. When we're reading through these marriage verses, and we do this one one typically every day on the American Soul Podcast. If you haven't joined us there, uh I hope that you get a chance to. But for the last two weeks here on the America's Christian Heritage Podcast, we've really been talking about marriage. That's what we're going to talk about today. And one of the problems that I would just offer to young men and women is so young men first. As the head of the household or the future head of the household, if you're looking for a wife, your job is to lead. And one of the ways that you do that off the bat is you lay out very clearly what your expectations are for your wife. And you should have expectations, right? As the leader, as the head of the household, you should have an idea of how you want the marriage to run, the house to run, children when you have them, etc. And you ought to be very explicit and very clear with a with a woman that you're courting, that you're looking to marry. And you better make sure that they line up very specifically with God and Jesus Christ and their commands. For women, uh the reverse, right? Your responsibility is going to be to follow this man, even when you don't like it, which is something society doesn't tell you, right? And so you need to make sure that that man is very clear on his expectations, and that you know exactly what they are. We had a commanding officer in the Marine Corps, one of the ones that I had. Guy was brilliant tactically, militarily. He he knew what he was doing. Uh, but he was horrible in a couple senses. One in particular was everything was priority number one, which meant that nothing was priority number one, right? So as a husband, if you come in and you tell your wife that every single thing is priority number one, she can't do that, gentlemen. That's impossible. That's not realistic. You have to, you have to know what's realistic, what's reasonable. And you have to provide for that. So, you know, if if you want her to really focus on cooking meals, cleaning the house, et cetera, uh, then you've got to take some other stuff. You you can't have every single thing be top priority. If you really want her to have the energy each day to satisfy you physically, then you you've got to give her some help in some other areas. And whether you acknowledge it or not, there's gonna be some consequences if you don't meet those expectations based on scripture. Um whether you set out the consequences at the beginning of the relationship as a husband or not, there's gonna be problems. And you see that inside marriage in the church today. That's why so many marriages are dysfunctional. Because the husband didn't lay out clear expectations, and there's no consequences when the wife refuses to fulfill those expectations, fulfill her roles and responsibilities, right? Uh C.S. Lewis talked about it when when women rule the house, for example, even they're ashamed of it. So I would just kind of I I just those were a couple things that happened as I was getting ready for the podcast, and we'll go ahead and get into the quotes.

Clear Expectations And Real Priorities

SPEAKER_02 10:25

A couple that we were going to use, this is from Reagan again, this is in 1985. Because there's nothing more important to all of us and nothing more important to our society and our nation and our future than the family. The family is where our children learn a moral view. It's where the values of personal responsibility and loyalty and kindness are taught. And it's not saying too much to say as the family goes, so goes the nation. This is very true, folks. You see it. The family has fallen apart over the last several decades, the nation's falling apart. And you can tie that back very easily to uh leftism, Marxism, communism, socialism. You can tie it back very easily to the influx in the last decade and a half or so of uh illegals and Muslims and the breakdown of the family. Um you can tie it to feminism extremely easy uh to tie it to feminism. But the weaker our families are, the weaker our nation is. And the only way to make strong families is to follow the principles of Christ. And that's true regardless of what your personal faith and ideology is. It doesn't matter if you're a Buddhist, uh Muslim, doesn't matter. Atheist. It doesn't matter in the sense that if you want a strong marriage, you're gonna have to follow the principles of Jesus Christ, even if you don't acknowledge him as Lord and Savior. Of course, logically, if you figure that out and you realize, hey, if I want a strong marriage, the only way to do that is when I'm following this guy and what he taught, then you probably ought to follow that guy, period, as your Lord and Savior, right? The nation certainly can only be strong when we have families and marriages based on the principles of Jesus Christ. 1988, uh September of 1988, Reagan again. Yes, the family is the bedrock of our nation, but it is also the engine that gives our country life. And he added that the family holds the nation together. That gives America her conscience, and that serves as the cradle of our country's soul. That right there is one of the great lies that feminism has done such a good job, uh, the propaganda, right, is that somehow a wife, a woman is less if she pours her energy into her husband first and then her children. Or the exact opposite of is true. A wife that pours her energy into her husband first uh makes him better and therefore makes the nation better. A wife that secondary pours her energy into her children, she's raising the next generation. There's no greater effect that you can have on the nation as a wife and mother than doing those two things. Right. So we're gonna get into uh we're gonna start with Ephesians 5, 22 through 33. And again, folks, I say this a lot on the American Soul podcast. I'll say it here too. You should only

Reagan On Family And National Strength

SPEAKER_02 13:32

follow anybody, myself included, you should only listen to their teaching as far as they're following Christ and not one single step farther. So whoever you're getting marriage advice, maybe you listen to this today and you go, you know what? Cope's absolutely crazy. He doesn't know what he's talking about. And you find somebody else, great. Wherever it is, you better make sure that what they're telling you, what they're teaching you, whether you're not married and young, not married middle-aged, not married and old, or you're married in any of those age brackets, too, it better line up with scripture.

Ephesians 5 Roles And Responsibilities

SPEAKER_02 14:05

Ephesians 5, 22 through 33. For example, wives should submit to their husbands as if to the Lord. A husband is the head of his wife, like Christ is the head of the church, that is, the Savior of the body. So wives submit to their husbands in everything like the church submits to Christ. As for husbands, love your wives just like Christ loved the church and gave himself for her. He did this to make her holy by washing her in a bath of water with the word. He did this to present himself with a splendid church, one without any sort of stain or wrinkle on her clothes, but rather one that is holy and blameless. That's how husbands ought to love their wives, in the same way they do their own bodies. Anyone who loves his wife loves himself. No one ever hates his own body, but feeds and takes care of it just like Christ does for the church, because we are parts of his body. This is why a man will leave his father and mother and be united with his wife, and the two of them will be one body. Marriage is a significant allegory, and I'm applying it to Christ and the church. In any case, as for you individually, each one of you should love his wife as himself, and wives should respect their husbands so much here. We could do a whole podcast just on these verses, right? The bottom line is: I would ask you, is your marriage functioning like this? As a husband, are you emulating Christ? As a wife, are you emulating the church in that relationship, right? Um, husbands, are you truly nurturing, caring for your wife the same way you do your own body? Uh hopefully you take care of your body well, right? You're not out just pumping drugs and liquor and everything else into it. Um you take care of it, right? Are you doing the same thing? Are you feeding and nourishing your wife? Uh and wives, obviously, the flip side is if you've if you've got a husband, right? And really, we're supposed to do this regardless of our spouse. Husbands, we're supposed to love our wives as our own bodies, regardless of whether she follows you or not, and does her part. And same thing, wives in reverse. But of course, even more so, if you've got a husband that's loving and nurturing and caring, are you submitting to him and everything? You know, are you uh following his lead, his commands, as the church does Christ? A lot of times we like to point fingers at our spouse, folks, but we're not doing our part.

1 Peter On Honor And Prayer

SPEAKER_02 16:42

1 Peter 3, 1 through 7. Wives, likewise, submit to your own husbands. Do this so that even if some of them refuse to believe the word, they may be one without a word by their wives' way of life. After all, they will have observed the reverent and holy manner of your lives. Don't try and make yourselves beautiful on the outside with stylish hair or by wearing gold jewelry or fine clothes. Instead, make yourselves beautiful on the inside in your hearts with your enduring quality of a gentle, peaceful spirit. This type of beauty is very precious in God's eyes, for it was in this way that holy women who trusted in God used to make themselves beautiful, accepting the authority of their husbands. For example, Sarah accepted Abraham's authority when she called him master. You have become her children when you do good and don't respond to threats with fear. Husbands likewise submit by living with your wife in ways that honor her, knowing that she is the weaker partner. Honor her all the more, as she is also a co-heir of the gracious care of life. Do this so that your prayers won't be hindered. Again, you could spend a whole podcast on this. What do you think? How do you think it would go over in most churches today or most Christian circles when you talk about the wife having uh calling her husband master or some translations say Lord?

unknown 18:06

Right?

SPEAKER_02 18:07

It's straight out of scripture, but how do you think that would go over? Probably not well, huh? I would offer that. Um You look at this, one of the things that I have told a number of people over the years when we get to talking about marriages, I I think one of the things that wives really don't understand today is what makes them beautiful truly to their husband is their actions. You know, I saw a meme, and it's a little crass, forgive me, but the point still hits home. I saw a meme recently on Instagram or TikTok or somewhere, and it was a wife that was playing darts, I think, with her husband at a bar, obstensibly, and she said, you can be both his peace and his porn star. And of course, the point that she was making is you scripturally, you have a responsibility as a wife to easily satisfy your husband, but also you look here in 1 Peter 3 to have a gentle, peaceful spirit, right? And and when you focus on those two things with actions, man, to that husband, ladies, it doesn't matter what the world calls you. The world might say on the you know, on the one to ten scale, you're on the lower end of it, but you won't be to him. You won't be to him. You're gonna be at the top of that scale, the very top, above the top. And husbands, I think this is something that we don't talk about near enough. You might have the best uh prayer life in the world, but if you are not treating your wife in an honorable way, acknowledging that she's the weaker partner, as scripture said here, honoring her all the more, uh, you might as well just be praying to a brick wall, huh? You wonder why you feel like your prayer life is weak, why you don't feel like your prayers are being heard, maybe, or or why it feels stagnant or empty or or however you have felt it, right? You feel like it's just, man, it just, I don't feel this connection with God, or I'm just my prayer life is really hard right now. As a husband, one of the first places we ought to look is: are we honoring our wives? Are we living with them in an honorable way?

1 Corinthians 7 And Sexual Unity

SPEAKER_02 20:41

First Corinthians 7, 2 through 6. Each man should have his own wife, and each woman should have her own husband because of sexual immorality. The husband should meet his wife's sexual needs, and the wife should do the same for her husband. The wife doesn't have authority over her own body, but the husband does likewise. The husband doesn't have authority over his own body, but the wife does. Don't refuse to meet each other's needs unless you both agree for a short period of time to devote yourselves to prayer. Then come back together again so that Satan might not tempt you because of your lack of self-control. I'm saying this to give you permission. It's not a command. That verse six gets misused so much today. If you go back and look for older study Bibles, you'll see what that verse is saying is it's you don't have to abstain. You can if you choose to, right? Today, so many people try and twist it and say, Oh, look, he's not saying this is a command. He's saying you can meet each other's sexual needs if you want to. No, that's not. They they got it turned all backwards. You don't have to abstain. You can if you both choose to, but only for a short period of time so that you can pray, and some translations say, fast, right? I saw a little clip recently, I think with one of the Guy, it's uh Dana White, maybe that has founded or set up the UFC, the fighting championships. And he was talking about he was being interviewed, and and the interviewer was asking him about his feelings. And he said, you know, I don't really like to talk about my feelings. My feelings don't really matter as a husband. That's what they were referring to. He said, I have a responsibility to go out. I have a wife, I have kids. I got to get up each day and go provide for them, regardless of what my feelings are. I'm tired, doesn't matter, I'm sick, doesn't matter, you know, overall, I've I've got to get out and do stuff. And I think when you look at verse four here, this is just my opinion, folks, the way I've read this for a while, when it talks about the husband not having authority over his own body, but the wife does. When you look at the wife, the wife doesn't have authority over her own body, but the husband does. I think for most husbands that involves physical intimacy. That means that the wife is giving her body to her husband and saying, you know what? I'm your wife now. Whatever you want, that's what, you know, as long as it's not immoral, as long as it doesn't go against Scripture. I would throw out sodomy as a great example here. It's saying, My body is yours. Do with it as you want. The flip side of that though is husbands. A lot of, I would argue, the majority of husbands, especially almost universally, the good husbands, year after year, day after day, week after week, month after month, right? They go out and work. And there's a physical mental strain, and that mental strain does appear physically that just breaks down their body. But that's your job. You're giving your body in that sense to your wife. You're saying, you know what, I'm gonna go out today and tomorrow and the next day and the next day, and I'm gonna find a way to provide, to protect. I'm gonna do the best I can. You know, maybe I'm not gonna give you a million-dollar house, but I'm gonna give you what I've got. And so, in that way, as a husband, you're giving your body to your wife. And then the other thing that for sure we don't talk about enough inside the church is the fact that when you refuse to do this, when you refuse to give your body to your spouse, and when you combine 1 Corinthians 7, 2 through 6 with Proverbs 5, 19, it's not once a week or once a month, it's every day, eagerly, right? Proverbs 5 talks about uh a husband being intoxicated on their wife's love, physical intimacy, uh, drunk on their body, right? At all times, always. So, so this is an everyday, all the time kind of thing, not a when I feel like it, sometimes. Uh and when we don't do that, what does it say here in verse five? It says, come back together again so that Satan might not tempt you because of your lack of self-control. When we don't do that, we open the door, big, fat, wide open the door to Satan. And if you know the old saying talking about the camel getting his nose under the tent, it just the devil just needs a foothold, much less a big, wide door to walk through. We, you know, you talk about adultery today, you talk about pornography today. So many different ways for the devil to work its way, worm his way into a marriage that are preventable when you look at strict scripture like this, as long as we are meeting our spouse's needs each day.

One Flesh Means Cling Together

SPEAKER_02 25:45

Genesis 2, 24, 25. This is the reason that a man leaves his father and mother and embraces his wife and they become one flesh. The two of them were naked, the man and his wife, but they weren't embarrassed. So I know for a fact, because I get a lot of hate on X pretty regularly about marriage. Uh a lot of people say, why is it always why is it always about sex? Well, a lot of times it is, folks, because God talks about it a lot. I mean, Genesis, the two were naked, the man and his wife, and they weren't embarrassed. How many of us are not embarrassed to be naked in front of our wives? How many of us are that intimate, that one flesh, where that's something that we eagerly look forward to and are comfortable with? The lights on, mirrors, doesn't matter. We're comfortable. Uh so again, whoever you're listening to about marriage, it better line up with scripture and not just the parts that you like, folks. Not just the parts that you like as a husband or a wife. It better line up with scripture as a whole. Because there's a lot of scripture on marriage. It's it's very black and white, it's not hard to figure out. The other thing here in Genesis, I was I had the privilege of getting to talk to a good friend of my wife's, actually. And we were talking about this a while back. Your spouse is the only person in the world that God tells you that relationship is supposed to become one flesh. It's supposed to be so entangled with each other that you cleave to one another, right? That's really powerful language that you embrace your spouse and you become one flesh with your spouse. And uh this friend of my wife's jokingly made the comment about being a stage five clinger, which I would probably admit to also. Uh, but folks, if you don't want to cling to your spouse each day, I mean, like if you just don't want to be all over them, why did you get married? What was your motivation? You really have to ask yourself that. If your goal, if you don't want to become one flesh with your spouse, cleave together, cling. I hate that when people say too clingy today. What does that even mean? How can you possibly be too clingy as a spouse when God tells you to become one flesh with your spouse? And I think often really what the people that say that you're too clingy, what they're really, they're given, they're outing themselves. What they mean is I want my spouse when I want them, but the rest of the time I want them to leave me alone. Well, marriage doesn't work that way, folks. You don't get to just uh basically use your spouse when you want to, and then the rest of the time ignore them. But again, I I would ask, really, if you don't want to cling to your spouse all the time, why'd you get married? And you you ought to be able to answer that. And maybe your spouse is okay with that, but I would bet a lot of them aren't. A man ought not to cover his head, since he is the image and glory of God, but woman is the glory of man, for man did not come from woman, but woman from man, neither was man created for woman, but woman for man. How do you think that would go over in most churches today? If you simply stood up and you had the ability to be a guest speaker on a Sunday, given even just a part of the sermon, and you just said, Hey, you know what? Women weren't created, uh, or men weren't created for women, women were created for men. And you wouldn't even have to say anything else. You would probably uh accomplish the church being burned down and destroyed from the inside out if all you said was that. And yet here it is in scripture. It's not black and I mean it's not gray, it's it's black and white. Men weren't created for women, women were created for men. So often, folks, you know, you go back to that scripture that we read at the very beginning of the podcast, uh, Timothy. We find people that teach what we want to hear. And man, we those those we really like them. My father used to say, I'll throw him under the bus. The people that agree with us, we think that they're really wise. Whether they are or not. Doesn't really matter if they agree with us. We we have a disposition, predisposition to think they are right. But so again, what does that tell you? Well, you ought to go back to scripture all the time because you know God's right all the time. 100% of the time, without exception, without fail, God's right. Jesus Christ is right. So if you know that there's a source that's correct 100% of the time, why would you not go there? And especially when it's something as important as your marriage, which is the only thing your marriage is second to is your relationship to God and Jesus Christ. Why wouldn't you go to that source? And you go back to Reagan's quotes that we talked about at the beginning of the podcast, and you got to connect those two things. If for the individual, if the most important relationship in their earthly life is their spouse, second only to God and Jesus Christ, and to the nation, the strength of the nation, the way the nation goes is the way of the family, why would we not go to the only source that's 100% true all of the time?

Colossians On Love And Leadership

SPEAKER_02 31:51

Colossians 3, 18 through 21. Wives

Scripture Versus Itching Ears

SPEAKER_02 31:56

submit to your husbands as is fitting in the Lord. Husbands love your wives and do not be harsh with them. Children, obey your parents and everything, for this pleases the Lord. Fathers, do not embitter your children, or they will become discouraged. The last one speaks to me often. One of the things in the Marine Corps that they taught us is not only do you have to set expectations for your Marines, you have to know your Marines well enough to know what they're capable of and what they're not capable of as an officer. And so as a father, as the commanding officer of your unit, of your household, I this is true not only of your kids, your wife too, but you have to know what they're capable of, and you can't ask them to do more than they can. Because all you're gonna do is make them become discouraged and bitter and really fearful of you. And there's nothing wrong, right? Like we're supposed to fear God. We're supposed to fear Jesus Christ. And so that relationship with the church, Jesus Christ and the church, there ought to be some respect, some healthy fear there between parents and father and wife and husband, right? I was extremely afraid of my father growing up, but it was never, I never doubted that he loved me completely for a second. And that fear wasn't like the kid that's got the alcoholic parent. I was never afraid of him beating me. I just knew that there were consequences if I didn't meet the expectations. Right? And so we've got to be real careful as fathers, as husbands first and fathers second, that we don't lay a burden on our wives and on our children that they can't carry. And then again, you just see the same refrain from verses 18 and 19. Wives, submit to your husbands. Husbands, love your wives and don't be harsh with them. It goes back to, you know, if you're not honoring your wife, husbands, there's a real good chance that your prayers are going to be hindered. Wives, if you're not submitting to your husbands, you go back to Proverbs. We haven't read this one today, but the proverb about the wise woman building her house versus the foolish one tearing it down. There's going to be consequences if you don't fulfill your roles and responsibilities as a wife. And maybe those consequences don't come directly from your husband, but they're still going to be there. Your marriage is still going to be broken and dysfunctional.

Be Fruitful And Multiply

SPEAKER_02 34:26

Genesis 9, 1 and 7. Then God blessed Noah and his sons, saying to them, Be fruitful and increase in number and fill the earth. As for you, and then verse 7, as for you, be fruitful and increase in number, multiply on the earth, and increase upon it. Elon Musk talks about this so often about the problem, the population collapse that we're having today. Right? And it's so it's funny in a sad kind of way to me to see that, particularly when you talk about in Christian households. Because God repetitively talks about what a blessing children are throughout scripture. Um, Psalms, you know, how blessed is the man whose quiver is full, talking about children. There's so many different places. And yet, what have we done over the past half century or so? We've said, well, I'm gonna have however many kids I want. We're basically we're trying to play God when you look at birth control, abortion, right? Abortion's even worse, it's evil, straight up. But how many blessings have we missed out on because of the quote-unquote nuclear family? Right? Like abortion's bad enough, but even inside the church as Christians, we had those two kids, one boy, one girl, husband and wife, and we're like, bam, we're done. We got everything we want. I don't want any more God. I don't need any more blessings from you. Be fruitful and multiply wasn't some random suggestion by God, and it has political consequences. It's having political consequences today in America and the West as a whole. A comment that I picked up years ago from a friend of my mother-in-law's, actually, and she said, You know, I know a lot of people that wished that they had had more children when they got into their older years. She said, I have never met a single person that was disappointed that wished that they had not had that last child that they had.

Quarrelsome Conflict And Choosing Wisdom

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Proverbs 27, 15 through 16. I think this is the last one we'll do for the day, folks, and we'll wrap it up. I'm a little longer than I wanted anyway. Uh, a quarrelsome wife is like a dripping, like the dripping of a leaky roof on a rainstorm. Restraining her is like restraining the wind or grasping oil with a hand. There's a bunch of proverbs that talk about uh it's better to live alone than with a contentious wife, quarrelsome wife. This just goes in that. Young men, when you're looking for a wife, make sure that she's not argumentative, contentious, quarrelsome, always has to be right, nagging. Young wives, when you're looking for a husband, make sure that you're marrying a guy that that you don't want to argue with, that you don't want to be contentious with, that you're willing to, that you want to submit to quietly, meekly, with a gentle, peaceful spirit. Because it goes back to the proverb that we mentioned earlier about the wise woman building her house up and the foolish one tearing her house down. That argumentative nature inside a marriage, inside a home, that conflict is like a cancer. It spreads to the kids, it spreads to the community, it spreads to the church. You don't want that festering in your home. Right. And I'll just leave you with this again, folks. Wherever you get your marriage advice from, make sure it lines up with God's word, not what the world's telling you. Because the world's gonna tell you everything I said today and on the previous podcast is crazy. They're gonna tell you that's insane. And a lot of us like to hear that because it tickles our ears, right? Like 2 Timothy. God's word is never wrong. The world is often, frequently wrong. Um, you know, do you listen to your parents, your friends, your siblings, social media? Do you pay attention to them even if what they're saying contradicts God's commandments, commands for marriage? Are you more interested in what you want to hear? Or are you more interested in what's right? How God designed marriage to function? Because whoever we listen to, folks, whoever we surround ourselves with, whatever we take in, whether it's books or movies or TV, et cetera, et cetera, that shapes how we view marriage and whether we function correctly in marriage or not. Which by in turn, in turn, that affects our nation and how it functions and whether it functions correctly or not.

Final Prayer And Ways To Support

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You can't control, I'll leave you with this at the end of the day. At the end of the day, as Christians, our responsibility is to follow Christ, right? Regardless of what anybody else does. You can't control your spouse, folks, if you're already married. Uh, you can't control anyone else. But you can choose to set the example by following God and His Son and executing your roles as a husband or a wife. Our Father who art in heaven, hallowed be thy name, thy kingdom come, thy will be done on earth as it is in heaven. Give us the stare our daily bread and forgive us our trespasses as we forgive those who trespass against us and lead us not to temptation but deliver us from evil for thine us the kingdom and the power and the glory forever and ever. Amen. God bless y'all folks. I'm so glad you joined us. If you get a chance, check out the American Soul Podcast. Also, if you get a chance, check out the Countryside Book Series if you enjoy them. If you leave some reviews, uh if you have eight or five or ten dollars, you can leave. There's a link in the show notes where you can set up that monthly donation that helps the writing and the podcast. Um just again, thank y'all very much for joining us. God bless y'all. God bless your families, your marriages, your nation, wherever you are around the world listening. God bless America. We'll talk to y'all again real soon, folks. Looking forward to it.