Counsel From An Unexpected Source: Your Spouse

counsel - Counsel from an Unexpected Source: Your Spouse

In the multitude of counselors there is safety. Proverbs 11:14

If the walls of ministers’ and counselors’ offices could talk, they would tell countless stories of people in pain and sorrow—much of it avoidable had they simply listened to the counsel of a caring spouse.

For example, Jack’s financial future had been wrecked by a fraudulent business partnership. I remember his questioning plea: “Sarah tried to warn me! How could she have known?” Earlier, Jack had brushed off his wife’s concerns as ridiculous, feeling that she didn’t know anything about business. While Sarah didn’t have X-ray vision, she could see things about the partnership Jack could not. She had a God-given sensitivity that told her “no” or at least “wait.”

Here’s another example of someone who should have accepted the counsel of a spouse:

Though Trudy’s two-month relationship with a neighbor friend had stopped short of sexual infidelity, it had almost destroyed her marriage to Jay. “Why couldn’t I see what Jay saw?” Trudy asked. “He tried to tell me that our neighbor wanted more than a neighborly friendship, but I thought he was being silly.” Jay could see things about the “friendship” that Trudy could not.

The counsel within marriage is a too-often untapped source of blessing and protection. That source of blessing and protection, combined with counsel from God Himself, gives us that “multitude” of counsel we so often need. For that reason, we are to turn to God, then to our spouses, for sound counsel. He may prompt us to include others in our search for His wisdom, but He’ll do so from the safety and foundation of marital oneness.

Where do you tend to turn first when you need counsel and wisdom for a marital question? Where should you turn?