As Uncle John, the son of Zacharia, was busy proclaiming the Kingdom of God, many people were coming to him for baptism. To the tax collectors, he charged them not to collect more than the legitimate amount they were told to collect. Though they were working for the Roman Government, the excess tax they were collecting was for their private pockets. Amazingly, soldiers came to him also for the baptism and he told them, “Be contented with your wages” – Luke 3:14.
That problem is still with us, of people not been contented with the salaries they receive. If you ask them why they are not satisfied with it, their quick response is that it is not enough to meet their needs. Renegotiate with them an acceptable salary, and they will still employ other dubious means of making money at the expense of their employers. My staff member went to buy some bags of feed for our birds and he returned without collecting the receipt from the seller. When I went to collect it, I spent much time arguing with the seller the number of bags we bought. I defended my staff member, all through. The lady insisted on her position and issued me receipt on that. I went back to the farm and told them what the woman said. They insisted that she was wrong. I showed them the receipt and they were all quiet. Our Madam in-charge pleaded with me for forgiveness.
A few months later, we told Madam to render the account of our broilers she was selling. Her opening balance, per the last account she rendered, was 900 broilers. Our Vet. doctor could not swallow that. His figure and mine for the closing balance then, was 1,400 broilers! What happened to 500 birds? Aunty had no answer to give. She had to lose her job. She is still employing various tactics to come back. “Be contented with your wages,” Uncle John the Baptist insisted.
Contentment is not restricted to employees of labour. It covers every spectrum of our lives, including everything we have, such as shoes, dresses, the house we live, et cetera. It stretches, even to our spouses. This is why most Churches and Christian Ministries spend many months to counsel would-be couples about marriage. Pastor William Kumuyi, the General Superintendent of Deeper Life Bible Church, taught many years ago, before he started the Church, that there is nothing wrong for any intending spouse to opt out, even on the wedding day before they are joined. That is why pastors, with special wisdom of God, ask the two people standing before God for joining, before the congregation and before the devil, whether they will accept each other, ‘For better and for worse’. When the answer is positive, they are joined. It does not make any sense to give a positive response if one of them is not contented with the partner-to-be.
I wrote in this Column some months ago, how Michal, King David’s wife, was looking for his fault through the window and of course, she found one. That was when David was dancing merrily in celebration of the Ark of God, which had been returned successfully to his city, and perhaps, his wrapper loosened! That was the only thing his wife could see, and not the work of God in that great assembly! She reviled him. What sin did David commit for that? In her case, her absence in the celebration might have grieved many people. Was God happy that the First Lady did not join other people in celebrating Him? And that was a woman, who blamed her husband for nothing! David went home to bless his family members, including her, tolerating her absence during the celebration. If his dress unfolded, would she not be the person to cover his nakedness? Instead of apologizing to him, she rather chose the cheap-path way of blame.
When I was an unbeliever, there was a lady I had wanted to marry. She was in Biafra while I was living in my village, which had been liberated by the Federal Army. At the end of the war, she visited me. As I was seeing her off, she rebuked me violently for urinating on the bush path. It was possible that I had been doing that before the war and she did not complain. I wondered what might have tipped off the balance. “Which is better,” I asked her, “for a man to urinate on a bush path or for a lady, who has just returned from Biafra, to spit for eleven times, within one hour?” That remark cut her down to size. She was surprised that I was making a census of her spitting, without uttering a word. This is the problem in many homes. I was accommodating her lapses – spitting – which could mean that there was a baby concealed in her womb, while she was very much irritated for mere urinating, not on the main road, but on a lonely bush path. For sure, discontentment had set in. The confirmation was that she left, without even enquiring about my family members, who had been very anxious to see her.
Your spouse may be rebuking you all the time for not minding the type of places you sit. Her grouse, if you dare challenge her for rebuking you, could be that the wrong places you sit, could make your dresses to be dirty, thereby, affecting your personality. If people are around, their judgment will be in her favour. In fact, they will appreciate her for taking good care of you. God may be seeing it differently. And so, may some wise people. It might not be your interest after all, that she is protecting really. It might rather be to save her from the wahala of washing your stained dresses! With time, she may not even know that she is exhibiting discontent and that the devil is behind it all.
“If she realizes that her words cannot change you, why then should she not tolerate it?” Love may ask. Can it be that she has forgotten the vow she made that day your nuptial knots were tied, ‘For better and for worse’? On the other hand, someone may ask, “Why should you not change so as to be doing your wife’s bidding?” It is good you do that, but if you try and still cannot change, love must accommodate you. Perhaps, during the youthful days, you were not taking any care of where you were sitting down and your wife did not complain. You may then begin to wonder then, why she should be doing so today. It may also be the exhibition of lack of contentment!
In all these, the devil is at work. He does not want harmony between any couple, and the absence of harmony, means that their prayers will not be answered. Caution is thus needed, for the one that insists for things to be done properly as well as the one that seems not to care about orderliness.
For further comment, Please contact: Osondu Anyalechi: 0802 3002-471; [email protected]