You Are Your Spouse's 'Angel'!

Written by Danny Gutierrez 

As a child, do you remember watching Donald Duck and Mickey Mouse cartoons? Some of my favorite episodes were the ones where Donald found himself trying to impress Daisy by babysitting his three nephews, but they would drive him absolutely crazy! 

He would plop down in frustration, and two figures would inevitably appear to give him advice: an angel on his right shoulder and a devil on his left. The angel would give him good advice, and the devil, bad.

Well, God has called us to be our spouse's "angel." We all make decisions every day, and the person who hopefully has the most influence our choices is our spouse.

So, when your spouse asks you for your opinion, are you most often "the angel" or "the little devil"? Do you give him or her solid advice based on God's Word, or do you say whatever sounds best at the moment? 

Let me give you an example. Let's say it's Sunday morning at 9:00 a.m. You both wake up to the sound of your obnoxious alarm loudly beeping. You are SOOO tired, because you were up with a group of your best friends last night playing games and eating chips and licorice until 1:30 in the morning. You didn't get to bed until after 2:00, and you're flat out exhausted.

So your spouse rolls over and moans, "Honey, what if we missed church this morning?" You try to not think about the fact that you did the same thing two weeks ago and actually didn't go to church on Wednesday or Sunday night either, because you were tired and your favorite show was on TV.... So what do you say?

Do you play the role of the "little devil" and reply back, "I think it would be okay this week - as long as we promise to go tonight to make up for it" (knowing full well you won't really go tonight).

Or are you the angel and say, "You know what? I'm exhausted, too and really tempted to stay home, but it's our fault for staying up so late last night. So how about this - we go to church and then take a really great nap together after lunch when we get home?"

The Bible says in Proverbs 10:21, "The lips of the righteous nourish many, but fools die for lack of judgment."

When we give advice, we should want our words to nourish our spouses and to help them to make the right decision. 

Danny Gutierrez

Web site: Danny Gutierrez Peru

Daniel & Stephanie Gutierrez were both raised in ministry families. Daniel grew up in Lima, Peru, where his parents are missionaries and pastor a church. Stephanie was raised in Minneapolis, Minnesota, where her father is an associate pastor at Living Word Christian Center. As a former missionary kid, mega-church staffer, ministry leader, staff pastor, urban church planter, and now a pastor on mission in Peru, Daniel's life has been one big God-adventure. Daniel and Stephanie, along with their two daughters, now reside in Lima, Peru where they are assisting with the relaunch of a 23-year-old ministry. http://www.cfaith.com/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=13878:you-are-your-spouses-angel&catid=73:relationships&Itemid=67