Like Peter in Gethsemane, many of us are prone to pull our swords and swing before we ask pertinent questions. We hear of a problem with our children, our neighbors, our home, or our marriages and we immediately unsheathe our swords and start looking for a dragon to slay. For others, they reach for their toolboxes and power saws with the aim of gutting and remodeling instead of studying the blueprints.
Sometimes this is appropriate. If our wives come to us in need of help, it is fitting that we act quickly. However, there are times in marriage when the best and most helpful thing we can do is unplug our power tools, grab a cup of coffee or tea, sit down, and listen.
Job knew the value of a listening ear (and a closed mouth) when someone is in distress or pain. To his well-intentioned friend, Job said: “Do you think that you can reprove words, when the speech of a despairing man is wind?” (Job 6: 26).
What Job meant was that his pain was moving him to say things that he did not really mean. In a moment of despair or hopelessness, even the most stalwart Christians
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