How Can You Respond When Your Wife is Driving You Crazy?

For those of you who are skimming, the answer is: don’t let her drive. Wait! That doesn’t mean what you think it does. And this isn’t just for guys either. Read on.

This morning I woke up in a muddle –  tired, and grumpy. Before the caffeine in my cup had a chance to reach my brain, my wife, Karen, told me that I was cutting her off when she talked to me. I was really offended by that and had a hard time shaking it off. I went to meet with God.

I put on my favorite Youtube worship playlist. An ad popped up. And in that ad was an unbelievable curse word. It was partially bleeped out, but our minds are good at filling in the blanks. Now my peace was totally shattered. I clicked through the ad and listened to a song. The cursing ad returned. Ugh! Now I’m at anger, just a short step from rage. Then I remembered what I wrote yesterday,

Yesterday, I finished writing a blog post about the three guardians of our heart: inner knowing what is right, joy, and peace. I wrote that when we lose the inner knowing of being right, lose our joy or lose our peace we should, “Look for the lie.” I offered the three guardians as a tool we can use in our daily lives.

I took my own advice. I looked for the lie.  But my head was so muddled I couldn’t think straight.   I asked, “Jesus, what is the lie I’m believing that has me so disturbed and angry?”

In that still, small voice deep inside me He said, “The lie is that she needs to change her behavior for you to be happy.”

Ha! Ha! I began to laugh. It was so true and suddenly so obvious. I was cutting her off. Because I didn’t have peace in me, I tried to control her so I wouldn’t get upset.  Once I saw the lie the choice was obvious. I chose to reject the lie and allow the peace and joy of Jesus to fill my heart and the room.

Excuse me, I have to go apologize to my wife.

Be REAL! It’s going to be a great day!