Titus 2 Men And Women

Are You Plucking Down Your House?
(This article taken from a monthly church newsletter)
by Denise Lower

Proverbs 14:1 is a very powerful verse. "Every wise woman buildeth her house: but the foolish plucketh it down with her hands." Many of us women spend YEARS plucking down our houses with our own hands and then we complain about the results. Maybe we are just trying to be like Mrs. Noah, or Sarah, thinking that God needs our help to accomplish the things in life that WE want. Many times we think it is our husbands who are destroying our homes, by not "allowing" us certain "things" we know that would make us happy. I call this impasse the "Satanic Wall of Selfishness". Men and women alike are responsible for putting bricks on this wall.

Several years ago, I started changing things in my own life with my own hands. By studying God’s word on a daily basis, the Holy Spirit revealed to me that I was quickly becoming the world’s worst wife. Only with Gods’ help was I able to change things around.

I learned long ago that Satan WILL come in and try to control different areas of my life, ESPECIALLY when I am displeased or unhappy in a certain area. When I am concentrating SO hard on what I am unhappy with, Satan just sort of "sneaks in" the back door of my life. Eventually, I destroy a part of my life, without even realizing it.

I remember a time of difficulty in our marriage. We struggled with our service to God; how to do it and in what ministry. After Godly counsel, we put away finishing college and became "laypeople". That almost sounds like a lazy word, and I think many people take it as such, and just "lay" around and let someone else do all the work.

Not wanting to be lazy, I felt like it was my responsibility to redirect some of the "free time" we now had. How foolish I was to not realize that the "foolish woman plucketh down her own house with her own hands".

One of the ways I began to "pluck down my own house" was in the area of over commitment. Many times I told myself that I was overburdening my schedule for God’s honor and glory. I remember a particular time in my life when I did this, and boy, was I kidding myself. Dinner was never on time, let alone on the table. Laundry was usually two or three loads behind. Discipline was a monumental task between the bazillion phone calls and all the trips to and fro in the car. Much was left undone, and there was no consistency in our lives. How does all this chaos add up to glory for God?

Growing weary with the struggle, I argued with God that it was my HUSBAND’S responsibility to ensure consistency in our lives, and he sure wasn’t delivering. I wanted my husband to be more spiritual, I wanted my husband to be the leader in our home, I wanted him to be more responsive to our son and discipline with more consistency, I wanted, I wanted, I wanted.....

In the middle of all this, Satan began slipping in those kinks in my spiritual armor and began telling me that I only needed to worry about myself. I didn’t need to concern myself with others so much, especially my husband. Well, that seemed like a logical train of thought. After all, isn’t God the only one that can really change my husband, regardless of what MY desires are? And if he didn’t change, that just means that he’s not spiritual enough, right? This selfish way of thinking would also help my hectic schedule!

And so I went on defending everything that happened for the next few months.

The first place Satan came to me about was my spare time, what little I had. I was convinced I needed a television, since my husband is a truck driver and was constantly on the road and only home a few nights a week. How in the world was I supposed to survive a long summer with a 5 year old and keep him entertained? He needed a television AND a VCR so he could watch movies as a treat for being a good boy. And besides, they were free if you got them at the library. (Now bear in mind, we did not have a TV or a VCR at the time. I was justifying spending $300.00 plus by saying the movies at the library were FREE!!!!) It never ceases to amaze me what Satan can convince us of.  There are SO many ways that Satan can assist us in "plucking down our houses".  That slimey beast had already bothered me in the area of my spare time. Next, he came to me in the area of my home.

I decided I simply could NOT live any longer without curtains in the living room. I knew what type I wanted and even though I had priced them at a discount store, I still could not afford the curtains OR the TV OR the VCR.

Then IT came! An envelope addressed to ME telling me I could get a CREDIT CARD!!!!!! Well, gosh and by gora, the eyes of God have smiled upon me, not to mention the "luck of the Irish"!!! If I could just get this credit card, all my problems would be over. I would have money to get the TV, the VCR AND the curtains.

Well, to make a long story short, the coveted credit card came IN MY NAME just a few weeks later. I went straight to the store for the curtains, got the TV and VCR the next week.....and then, of course, there was the time I needed cash and isn’t that WHY they sent me that PIN number????? And of course NOW I could sign up to become a consultant to sell a product that I certainly didn’t have the money to buy, once again justifying putting more money on the card than if I had just bought the product. Then, what do you do when you are driving around and you need cash for gas and treats??

Well, on and on it went, until before I knew it, the small credit limit I had was all used up. In my dissatisfaction, I could see how easy it is to let Satan tell me what I wanted. Sometimes it takes a supernatural act of God to get me back on track with God again.

This little "bump in the road" in my life is just an example of how NOT reading my Bible, NOT having an active prayer life and NOT letting God handle everything in my life, even the little things, can end up. The decisions made LAST YEAR are still affecting our lives THIS year. It was me plucking down my house with my own hands....

During this time period, I received an NSF (overdraft) from my bank regarding my checking account. For some reason, I stuck this little slip of paper in my Bible the next morning, to mark a place I was reading. The NSF stated that I was charged $90.00 due to three (3) checks that had bounced. As I looked at that statement when I opened to that section of my Bible, I saw the front of that statement.....and the amount. I had inadvertently stuck this condemning piece of paper in Proverbs 14......how appropriate. I have written Proverbs 14:1 on the back of that statement and keep it in my Bible as a reminder of how easy it is to "pluck down your own house".

Now I am trying to "build up my house" by praying, talking things over with my husband and WAITING for God’s still small voice. Some mornings, God will literally throw me out of bed early in the morning to pray for a friend or just to read His Word as the sun begins to lighten the sky. I look forward to these times now, and even think of them as a type of prevention in allowing Satan to help me "pluck down my own house". I do not want to "pluck down my house" again.

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