Happy, Successful Partnership
      
      
         169
      
      
        and wife should be linked together in holy bonds of union, under Jesus
      
      
        Christ, with Him to control, and His spirit to guide.
      
      
        God wants the home to be the happiest place on earth, the very
      
      
        symbol of the home in heaven. Bearing the marriage responsibilities
      
      
        in the home, linking their interests with Jesus Christ, leaning upon His
      
      
        arm and His assurance, husband and wife may share a happiness in
      
      
        this union that angels of God commend
      
      
      
      
        When Differences Arise
      
      
        It is a hard matter to adjust family difficulties, even when husband
      
      
        and wife seek to make a fair and just settlement in regard to their
      
      
        several duties, if they have failed to submit the heart to God. How can
      
      
        husband and wife divide the interests of their home life and still keep a
      
      
        loving, firm hold upon each other? They should have a united interest
      
      
        in all that concerns their homemaking, and the wife, if a Christian, will
      
      
         [131]
      
      
        have her interest with her husband as his companion; for the husband
      
      
        is to stand as the head of the household.
      
      
        Your spirit is wrong. When you take a position, you do not weigh
      
      
        the matter well and consider what must be the effect of your main-
      
      
        taining your views and in an independent manner weaving them into
      
      
        your prayers and conversation, when you know that your wife does not
      
      
        hold the same views that you do. Instead of respecting the feelings of
      
      
        your wife and kindly avoiding, as a gentleman would, those subjects
      
      
        upon which you know you differ, you have been forward to dwell upon
      
      
        objectionable points, and have manifested a persistency in expressing
      
      
        your views regardless of any around you. You have felt that others had
      
      
        no right to see matters differently from yourself. These fruits do not
      
      
        grow upon the Christian tree.
      
      
        My brother, my sister, open the door of the heart to receive Jesus.
      
      
        Invite him into the soul-temple. Help each other to overcome the
      
      
        obstacles which enter the married life of all. You will have a fierce
      
      
        conflict to overcome your adversary the devil, and if you expect God to
      
      
        help you in this battle, you must both unite in deciding to overcome, to
      
      
        seal your lips against speaking any words of wrong, even if you have
      
      
        to fall upon your knees and cry aloud, “Lord, rebuke the adversary of
      
      
        my soul.”
      
      
        178
      
      
         The Adventist Home, 101-107