BOUND
I often ask myself, “Have they chosen to be bound?” Though I know in my heart, no one, not even the insane, chooses to be bound.
Then why do they remain so? As I look out over the crowd of fettered couples, I wonder, do they even know of their bondage? I see pampered flesh, pious faces, composed emotions, and disciplined wills concealing the self-imposed bondage. Yet, on occasion the pretense fails and their souls are seen through the bars of their making.
I look to my husband seeking the answers in his face, while silently whispering a prayer for him to have the wisdom he needs for so great a task. Can he say something that will cause them to see that the web binding their family is of their own spinning? Will he be able to tell this critical wife, wrapped in thick cords of bitterness, silly imaginations, contempt for her man, and romantic emotions which she thinks is spirituality, that the cords binding her husband, chords she so despises, are cords she tied?
Like Eve, she plucks the fruit of bitterness, shares it with her husband, and then decries his lack of leadership. His lack of confidence before God and man, the apparent lack of interest in studying the Word, and his hesitancy to lead the family are not cords of his own making; they are cords she tied through her dissatisfaction with him as a man. He doesn’t understand what binds him. His anger at circumstances he doesn’t understand and can’t seem to master drains his confidence before God. How can he soar before a mighty God if he can’t please his own wife? They are “heirs together of the grace of life,” but they can never maintain a togetherness long enough to inherit. So their children must face life without the grace of life. What hope have they?
The woman sees couples where the man is mighty, he is confident, he receives honor of many. She feels his magnetism and manhood as he looks at his wife and smiles. “How can it be that that woman should get a mighty man of God, such a loving husband?” She can’t understand why life should have permitted her such fate. She has so much talent, so much poise, so ready to minister, but she must drag her husband along.
The wife goes to women’s meetings and “shares” the sad story of her enslavement to a carnal, insensitive husband. She bemoans the mistakes she made when she was less “spiritual.” Now she suffers the consequences of having “married the wrong man.” But she bravely “dies to herself” and lets her husband know of her longsuffering – with an emphasis on the suffering. She makes sure he is aware of the time she puts into prayer and Bible study.
She grieves over her lost opportunity and dreams of what it would have been like if she had only married a strong, mighty man, a man known for his wisdom. Does she not know her man could be all of that if she only allowed him to be free? Like Delilah cutting away Samson’s strength, she cuts her husband and leaves him exposed to the Philistines of this world. Any man she married would soon pale in her eyes, because he too would be weakened by her criticism. After she cuts her husband, her dissatisfaction grows, and she seeks out others to condemn or control. Other men, her children, and eventually the church leaders feel the sting of her tongue.
