They pack a stout punch in a few short phrases. Take, for instance, the wisdom contained in this Zulu one: "He who walks into a thunderstorm must put with hailstones."A proverb is "a short sentence drawn from long living." And this one definitely fits the profile!
Regrettably the following one hits a little too close to home! A Persian Proverbs declares:
"Three things make a house intolerable:
TAK: the leaking of a roof, NAK: a nagging wife, and BAK: bugs."
"TAK."
As the sun was setting last evening, I was scrambling to finish a patch job on my roof. Somewhere I have a leak. It was first evident when we had a major ice dam in the winter. After receiving good counsel from a friend who is a roofing professional, I snagged the one forty degree afternoon of January, removed 40 square feet of shingles and tar-paper, laid in new rubber membrane sheeting, Leakand installed new shingles. What a relief to have a dreaded task accomplished! But then spring arrived and with it torrential rains. "Your roof is leaking again. I have covered the floor with towels but it is really coming through." I hung up the phone and tried to visualize where the problem might be. More roofing substance in a caulking tube and a sense of cautious relief. And the next time it rained, it worked. We checked the ceiling repeatedly and no "water feature"!
"BAK."Bugs. We have them. Giant black ants! Apparently our rent rates are some of the more attractive in the community, because these irritating little creatures are encouraging all their friends to move in! So I drop by the hardware store and purchase a promising product, head home and begin the assault. The house was treated on the inside where it seemed Bugimportant. Then the doorsills and the windowsills were soaked on the outside of our dwelling. And the ants kept moving in! In frustration it was off to the store for a "bigger weapon" and a good foundation soaking seems to have done the trick. Bug...be gone!
But then came another and the dreaded "towels on the floor" routine. The water once more began streaming down the wall. So my brother sent a gallon of "guaranteed to seal up anything" material, and I watched the sun setting in the west as I sought to seal the roof.
So much for "TAK" and for "BAK." But what of "NAK"?
Linda said she couldn't believe how many times Proverbs repeated itself on this point :) . Try these on for size:
"It is better to live in a corner of a roof (in cramped quarters), than in a house (palace) shared with a contentious woman" - Proverbs 21:9
"It is better to live in a desert land (where life and survival is hard), than with a contentious and vexing woman" - Proverbs 21:19
"It is better to live in the corner of the roof than in a house shared with a contentious woman" (think he already said that once!?!) - Proverbs 25:24
"A constant dripping on a day of steady rain and a contentious woman are alike" - Proverbs 27:15
You get the point...NAK!
You can do something to repair a leaking roof, TAK. It may be frustrating, inconvenient, time-consuming, maybe even expensive. But you can fix it if you set your mind to do so. (Or...you can hire someone who can!) You can buy good product and apply it appropriately so as to address BAK. (Again, if you can't figure it out, for a few dollars you can hire it done!)
But how does one address NAK? Let me suggest a couple of ways:
- Stop acting like Adam who, when he should have been leading, he stood around listening. In other words, get back into the game! "Like a bird that wanders from her nest, so is a man who wanders from his home" - Proverbs 27:8
- If you step up and provide loving and caring leadership, if you wake up to the things that are causing frustration and anxiety in the wife of your bride, and if you invest in the time to deal with them, NAK won't disturb your home. "House and wealth are an inheritance from fathers, but a prudent wife is from the Lord" - Proverbs 19:14
Got the roof fixed? Turned back the bug invasion? Now, start treating your bride as a woman whom you value. No more TAK...the end of BAK...what's that smile you hear?
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