We all carry our own personal atmosphere with us wherever we go.
All of us live in an environment, be it peace or anger, joy or sadness, hope or despair. Just like individuals and churches have a “personality,” so do marriages. There are things that you do, or don’t do, that create the atmosphere in your home. You must nurture the spirit of your marriage. You can cultivate a healthy atmosphere in your home.
Everything requires an environment to grow. Nobody grows oranges in the Himalayas because the climate is not conducive. There are no wheat fields in Death Valley—no pineapple groves in Alaska. Your home demands the proper atmosphere to nurture a healthy relationship.
External Factors
While not the MOST important, the physical environment IS important. Make the most of what you have. Create an aesthetically appealing home. Keep the yard up. Plant shrubs and trees. Paint the inside walls. Make your house bright and attractive. Make a list of improvement projects. Allow your wife to update the furniture or decorations. Keep the palace orderly and NICE. Work at making your home a place that your wife loves.
We travel many weeks out of the year and live in a travel trailer when we are on the road. I made it a point years ago to provide a pleasant place to live, both our house and the travel trailer. You might be comfortable in a tent, but chances are your wife is not!
Invest in a sound system so soothing music can be played. God has given us all things freely to enjoy. Take advantage of the healing properties of music.
Internal Factors
One of the best things you can do is to get your heart in tune with heaven. Peace, joy, love, and gentleness are the fruit of the Holy Spirit. Your “inner man” communicates to everyone you meet, especially your mate. What’s going on inside your heart affects your home. Your inside world will show up in your outside world.
The spirit you carry, as well as the Spirit you possess, is so important. Your unconscious influence may be more powerful than the things you do intentionally. What you are is more critical than what you do. A contaminated heart sows chaos in your home. When you are out of touch with God, you will find a dullness in your perception. You will overlook the obvious and lose the opportunity to address issues.
Jesus is better than sin! Indulging the flesh seems great momentarily, but only brings grief and sorrow afterward. If you have been a Kingdom citizen for any length of time, you know the futility and misery that follows these excursions into carnality.
Eternal Factors
Your worship determines your worthiness as a husband. Countless wives are longing for a man who loves God with all his heart. Even if your wife is unsaved, you will be a better husband when you walk with God. Your walk with God affects how you walk in your house. Enoch walked with God under the Old Covenant. But we have the New Covenant promise and the power of an indwelling Christ!
You build unity in your home by praying with your wife. When you read together and worship together, you develop a closeness that impacts your emotional and physical oneness.
These factors all influence the spirit of your marriage. You cannot afford to go passive, or merely hope for the best. You MUST take action and responsibility for the spirit in your marriage.
This chapter was written by Evangelist Harold Vaughan
The chapter is taken from The Extraordinary Husband. CLICK HERE for more details.
