PARENTHOOD
a divine stewardship

Wisdom in these verses is equal to the way in John 14:6, a verse where the Lord Jesus says, "I am the way." Apart from Christ as the way, we do not have access to the Father. Hence, God's way is His wisdom. How can we enjoy God and participate in Him? If we would enjoy Him and participate in Him, we must have a way, and this way is God's wisdom….

Suppose a sister has a problem with her husband. She exercises her spirit and calls on the name of the Lord Jesus. As a result, she is rescued from the problem. To speak more exactly, she receives Christ as wisdom to her from God. Before she learned to exercise her spirit and call on the Lord's name, she would argue with her husband. This is foolish. Nevertheless, wives often argue with their husbands, trying to convince them and even to subdue them. For example, a certain husband may habitually come home late. Relying on her natural wisdom, the wife may try to change her husband's behavior. However, the more she argues with him, the more frequently he comes home late. His wife's arguing actually causes the problem to become worse. Instead of arguing with her husband, the wife should exercise her spirit and call on the name of the Lord. Then she will have the wisdom, the way, to deal with the problem.

BECOMING RIGHTEOUS

…When we enjoy Christ, the first aspect of the divine virtue, the divine goodness, we shall experience is God as our righteousness. Whenever we enjoy Christ and experience Him, we first have God as our righteousness. This means that when we exercise our spirit and call on the name of the Lord Jesus, we become righteous. The more we call, the more righteous we become.

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Let us again refer to an illustration from married life. It certainly is wrong for a husband to come home late at night. Nevertheless, a wife may be wrong and unrighteous in the way she deals with her husband concerning this matter. She may be altogether unfair, condemning him and putting all the blame on him. She never condemns herself or blames herself. Her attitude is also wrong, and she is unrighteous in arguing with her husband.…

Whenever a husband and wife exchange words, both parties are unrighteous. The husband will declare that he is right and that his wife is completely wrong. The wife will insist that the husband is wholly wrong and that only she is right. As a result, both the husband and the wife become unrighteous. Should the wife begin to exercise her spirit and call on the name of the Lord Jesus, she will realize that she has been unfair and unrighteous in relation to her husband. Then she will say to herself, "Yes, my husband is wrong to a certain extent. But I put too much blame upon him. Furthermore, I am wrong to argue with him and to condemn him. Now I see that he is wrong only to a small degree, but that I am much more wrong than he is. I am at least twice as unrighteous as my husband is." When the sister realizes her situation by calling on the name of the Lord, she spontaneously becomes righteous, for Christ becomes righteousness to her…

When we call on the Lord's name with the exercise of our spirit, we become righteous. As we gradually become righteous in this way, we shall eventually become righteous in the way we speak to our husband or wife. Suppose a sister is very righteous with respect to her husband. Eventually, her righteousness will convince him and subdue him. He may say to himself, "Formerly my wife was not like this. Whenever I was wrong, she would condemn me very much. I admit that I was wrong, but she was even more wrong in the way she condemned me." Because of her condemnation of her husband, she offended him and caused him to react negatively. But now she is righteous toward him because she exercises her spirit to call on the name of the Lord. In this way, the Lord becomes righteousness to her.

Whenever we become righteous by calling on the Lord, we become calm. Righteousness calms us down. The reason a husband and wife argue and exchange words is that neither party is righteous. But if one party becomes righteous, this righteousness will cause the other party to calm down. Suppose it is the wife who turns to the Lord, calls on Him, and becomes righteous in dealing with her husband. Immediately he will realize that she has changed and that she is now fair and righteous in relation to him.

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