England and France were at war for 300 years for no greater purpose than a husband’s stubbornness and a wife’s nagging spite. When France’s Louis VII returned from the Crusades, he chose to keep the beard he’d grown, but his wife, Eleanor of Aquitaine, couldn’t stand it. So after nagging him for some time, she up and annulled the marriage and found a new man, King Henry II of England, sparking the War of the Whiskers. So, for 300 years British and French soldiers died in skirmishes for no greater purpose than a stubborn wife and husband who refused to love each other and nurture a healthy marriage.
This still happens, of course. Only these days instead of soldiers on a battlefield, the casualties of such wars are the children in your back seat, the parents who wanted something so much better for their children and grandchildren, and the community that sees what you think they don’t. Remember, it’s a lie that says your marriage only affects you and your spouse. The ripples of dysfunction can generate a lasting butterfly effect that you’ll never be able to to put back in the box. But, you can control how you treat your spouse. You can choose patience over nagging, love over spite, healing over revenge, and humility over stubborn pride. What will you choose today?
“To sum up, each one of you is to love his wife as himself, and the wife is to respect her husband.” Ephesians 5:33, HCSB
