Marriage & Motherhood – Page 4

As women, we have this tactic we sometimes use to make sure someone knows that we are not happy with them … we call it the “silent treatment,” and it basically involves ignoring that person or refusing to engage with them on a comfortable level. Personally, the silent treatment never worked very well in my house … perhaps because it doesn’t last very long as I have a hard time holding my tongue! So I’m giving you a challenge today … learn to give your husband the silent treatment. Of course there is a catch, and here it is. I’m not talking about “a stubborn refusal to talk to someone, especially after a recent argument or disagreement” as Google so helpfully defined the term “silent treatment”. No, I am talking about what I would call the “friendly silent treatment,” or learning to hold your tongue! Not where you are about to bite it off inside your mouth because you so desperately want to say something, but truly discovering that sometimes silence really is the best choice. Ecclesiastes 3:7 tells us that there is a time to be silent, and a time to speak. I Peter 3 reminds us of how precious a “quiet spirit” is in God’s eyes. James reminds us to be “quick to hear, slow to speak, and slow to anger.” Remember, the silent treatment is as much of an attitude as it is a choice of whether or not to use words. Sometimes the best thing to say is nothing at all. I’m not just talking about when you are close to having an argument, although that is a very good time to be silent also. But sometimes it is a matter of just listening, or just sitting quietly together without needing to express an opinion or idea. So whether you are learning to hold your tongue and not say something unkind, disrespectful, or insincere or whether you are learning to listen to hear what your husband has to say instead of listening to give an answer, let’s all work today on perfecting the art of silence!