A spouse who learns to speak in a loving manner takes a huge step toward promoting peace in the marriage.

An excellent wife, who can find? . . . She opens her mouth in wisdom, and the teaching of kindness is on her tongue. Proverbs 31:10, 26, NASB

A wife has a special role in contributing to the healthy and positive emo­tional atmosphere of the home. Teresa often encourages wives to bring up the subject with their husbands with statements such as, "I want to be the wife of a genuinely happy husband, so I'd appreciate your sharing with me little ways I could make you happy." She also sometimes encourages wives to study what makes a husband happy by review­ing Proverbs 31 and 1 Peter 3:1-7.

We often encourage couples who want to establish a more peaceful home environment to be cheerleaders of each other with positive words. We encourage them to send one another off daily with words of encouragement, gratefulness, and affection and welcome each other home with words of empathy, understanding, and tenderness. We tell them to publicly and privately offer one another words of praise.

We believe this is in keeping with what the Word of God tells us about the power of words. As today's Scripture passage indicates, one important aspect of a wife's "excellence" is "kindness . . . on her tongue." Words have the power to instill peace or stir up strife.

A wife of excellence must learn to bridle the tongue and to turn neg­ative comments or criticism into words that edify (Ephesians 4:29). For example, notice the difference between "You care more about your career than you do me!" and "I know you've been very busy with work, and I feel both appreciative of your diligence and lonely without you. I'm looking forward to spending some time alone together soon."

A spouse who learns to speak in a loving manner takes a huge step toward promoting peace in the marriage.

What words of praise and encouragement can you speak to your spouse today in order to promote peace in your marriage?

Father, give our marriage Your peace, which the world does not know.