Marriage in the Christian Home - Part 1 — Keith Daniel

Opening Thanksgiving and Fellowship

Thank you for the lovely songs that we sang, the hymns of our faith, and the very lovely way you sing it. Thank you for not singing like the world, for singing the old hymns of our faith. I do thank you from my heart for the joy it is to sit in such an atmosphere.

Thank you also for the very precious word our brother shared with us this morning. Thank you for sharing there, and with your family, singing too, those lovely hymns, and it is so sweet to trust in Jesus.

Thank you for sharing those precious passages, brother. I can't see you in my old age, so I'm looking at everyone and saying, thank you, brother. Where are you, brother? Where did you go? I hope he hasn't left.

There you are, in the back. Okay, thank you, brother, for sharing those lovely passages. 2 Corinthians 12, verse 7, oh my, what words Paul uttered there. Titus 2, 11, staggering words of grace, what grace really calls us to.

We do bless God, brother, for you sharing those things to us this morning, and the life of us, and his downfall. Well, we do bless you for waiting on God, and bringing that which God gave you, from your heart and your soul to us, brother, and may God anoint you, and use you as you share in future the things of God, that God burns in your heart, the scriptures God burns in your heart.

Bless you. Now, it's my joy to be in your country, and especially, very especially, to be here. I didn't know there was two churches. It used to be one, and I'm getting used to it. But, um, I'm glad to be in the new church.

I think you call yourself the new church. Well, it's a new group. Let me think, in the little bits I've picked up here and there, most of you, the Hutterites. I'm getting that word right. So you all like to be together.

Who isn't a Hutterite here? Could you put your hand up? Oh my, so you're not all Hutterite. Wonderful. I'm getting all confused as to who came over to this side. But I believe you're going to have a lovely new building, and I'm looking forward, if God spares me, to coming and seeing what God gives you in a convention center, and a place to be able to practically work all the things, the remnant and the faith ministry.

Bless the Lord for what God has in your heart, and may he honor you. The first time I ever came here, I thought to myself, these people need a big conference center. I'm glad God's given it to you, as you're aiming at it right now.

Who has, who is belonging to this church alone? Could you put up your hands? I'd like just to see something. Okay. And who has been coming along to the meetings? The other side. Okay. And the rest of you?

Naughty. That's what I say to my children, you know, when I really scold them. Naughty. But now you come tonight. Otherwise I, next time I'm here, I'll say naughty again, you see. That's a brassy. You pray for me, and you please come tonight.

I'll be very grateful. And do pray for me as I go around your country. I've come to love America very deeply, and I don't know why God took the basest and the weakest and the most unworthy of priestess from the other side of the world, but I think what caliber of men are over there in my country and across Africa, how God could take this weak man and give me the privilege of coming to other countries and to your country like this.

I marvel at God's grace and mercy. But he chooses the base things of the world and the weak things of the world. To despise that no blessed glory in his presence. Isn't that lovely? God takes up the weakest of us, brother, because he knows he won't glory.

Prayer and the Authority of God's Word

Because if we do, he hasn't here, his presence won't be felt. So he has to bypass the strong. Now our wonderful Lord, thank thee for this lovely day. Thank thee that we, as thy people, can be together and sing the hymns of our faith to our God.

And thank thee for fellowship that is so sweet. Thank thee, God, for the holy word that we have come to love, for thou dost speak to us through it. And is there anything so sweet to us as thy voice, Lord, when we know it's not just words written, it's God speaking to me.

God speaking to me words so clear as though he was sitting opposite me in a chair, looking at me in the eyes and speaking. And we have no doubt how thy word is like that to us, Lord. Sometimes from the pulpit, sometimes in our quiet times.

But there it is, Lord, the word of God to our hearts, to quicken us, to show us the way, to caution us, to encourage us, to comfort us, to heal us. So long as this book is open, Lord, we will not be offended.

In thee, blessed is the man whose delight is in the law of the Lord, and nothing shall offend him. O God, when our one delight, our great delight, is thy law, thy word, nothing shall offend us. How we love thee.

How we bless thee for giving us the Bible, to be a lamp unto us, be a light unto us. How we bless thee for giving us the Bible, for we've learned man shall not and cannot live by bread alone, but by every word that proceedeth out of the mouth of God.

How we bless thee for this word. How we bless thee, God, and are able to come to thee with the things God has held out to us, that our faith has been stirred. And remember the word, Lord, unto thy servant upon which thou has caused me to hope.

Thank thee for every promise in the book that thou has given me, God, to keep me from faltering, to keep me from taking my eyes of God, to keep me from losing hope, to fill me with hope where there is no hope.

The staggering work of God in the heart through the Bible, we do bless thee for it. Keep this book open before all of us through our lives, Lord. Now in mercy wash me in the blood, fill me with the Holy Spirit, keep us under the blood.

Open our eyes and our hearts in grace and mercy on us, and speak to every heart in a most profound and precious way. We ask these things in the name that we love and that we live for, in the name we would gladly die for.

The Healing Impact of the Marriage Message

We ask these things in the name of Jesus the Christ, amen. A good number of years ago I was led by God, I believe in my heart, in my understanding, to preach a message on marriage. And I took scriptures and illustrations of the things that had happened in the dealings with people in the early years of my ministry, and I put together as I trusted God for guidance, a message concerning how a Christian marriage should be, and what God requires of us in our home and in our marriage.

I had no idea how many multitudes and multitudes of people across this world, how many would seek God through that message. Had I known as I put it together, I would have even been more careful and more diligent.

I have been thrilled and blessed and encouraged to see how that tape of that message spread across my land, into homes and homes and homes, and how people would walk up in the streets, in the malls, how people would write letters and phone and say, sir, my marriage was hell on earth.

Terrible words, isn't it? Until I heard that message, I was as good as living separate, though we lived on the same roof. We were as good as divorced. For years there was no love. I had no love, no respect, no ability to forgive, bitterness.

And by the end of that message, God worked in my heart love for my wife that I've never known before, a healing in one moment of grace and divine work by the blood of Christ. And I love my wife now, and I love my husband now, sir, and our marriage is healed.

Oh, how many homes have contacted me and said these precious words again and again, and that has so encouraged me. And then that message I preached once here in America, and it spread, and I do bless God for the fruit here in your land through that one message.

But then the Americans did something strange, you know, they heard I'd be here in February in New York this year, and so people up in Ohio phoned me and said, we have a meeting annually in a big restaurant called the Amish Inn.

I don't know if you've seen it, it's a big, big, big restaurant in some form of hotel, I think. And this dear lady said, we have once a year a couples evening where people come and we speak about marriage, we get the preacher to preach about marriage.

Now she said, we've all heard your first message on marriage, we'd like you to preach something different. So she didn't leave me without time, because I was just adding this little meeting now onto this program in New York.

So I tried to, but there was no time. When I got into the airplane to come across the world, I took papers and instead of sleeping most of the way and praying, I just prepared a message this trip right across the world in the airplane.

And this is the message I preached that night in that couples evening, where many, many, many, many people from all of Ohio and other states came, and this massive big complex to seek God, about this topic called marriage, the Christian home, the Christian marriage.

Marriage Is Honorable Before God

There's a verse in the Bible that I would like us to consider before we take any further step into this subject of marriage. And I think it's a verse that if they just read it from the pulpit of every church in the world, it would have staggering consequences in this day and age.

I doubt that many churches would be willing to read this verse, because they would lose most of their congregations in one moment, just reading it, let alone preaching in it. Hebrews 13 verse 4 says these words, marriage is honorable.

Oh, I love that. God says that. Young people, they might be living together out there, outside of marriage, and they're multitudes, but don't forget God says, marriage is honorable. In awe, I love that he added those words, in awe, in God's eyes.

When you're married, there's something about a sanctity, about awe. Marriage is honorable, in awe. And the bed, the bed, the bed, undefiled. Now the irreligious, the godless, laugh, they joke, they snigger, they sneer.

When you talk about the bed, it's just something evil, something filthy, something indecent, but to God and God's people and to God's holy ones, there's no smile on the face, there's no sniggering, there's no seer, there's something holy when God talks of that.

It's sacred. There's nothing, nothing, nothing of shame, for there's nothing indecent or sinful, there's nothing impure. God says, marriage is honorable, in awe, and the bed, undefiled, God says. In marriage, it's undefiled, it's sacred.

You could say that word comes close to meaning in God's eyes. Isn't that precious? Undefiled. Marriage is honorable in awe, and the bed, undefiled, but, but, whoremongers and adulterers, God will judge, will judge.

God will judge, will judge. Don't doubt it now. Somehow, the great tragedy of this generation that you and I live in, is that the marriages crumble from the pulpit down across all the evangelical churches.

The staggering thing is that the salt of the earth is no longer the salt of the earth. The light of the world no longer can show the world the way God wanted, for they crumble in marriages everywhere, everywhere, in their masses.

Christian homes are breaking down in these last moments of this earth's tragedy, as defilement and moral decadence, and giving over in marriage is just the order of the day, presented through the media as the way of life, as the norm, to be unfaithful, as heroic.

There's nothing defiled, it's regarded as the norm. So the fruit of what you sow, America, through Hollywood, you're now reaping. You sow moral decadence, you reap morally decadent people. You pay for what you sow, Hollywood.

You pay for what you allow, Hollywood, to sow, America. The fruit is there, isn't it? Unfaithfulness, defiling, looseness, moral decadence, and the despising of marriage, because that's what you put over.

But the church, the church, where is our stand? When our marriages start crumbling, I think it's time for us as the people of God to get back to the Word of God and see what have we done wrong? What have we done wrong?

Wives Following Christ in Submission

Because if it doesn't work in the home, it doesn't work anywhere, brother. There's one stepping stone in this book I'd like to take, the chapter you all know, you need not look it up. I'm sure every woman here knows Word Perfect, and every man knows Word Perfect, the words of Peter that he says concerning marriage.

In 1 Peter 3, likewise, ye wives, be in subjection. You want to know what to do? Get back to God's Word, then open your heart, even though you don't like the words, world. Likewise, ye wives, God says, be in subjection, be in subjection, be in subjection to your own husbands, that if any obey not the word, they also may, without the word, be won by the conversation of the wives, by the life of the wives, while they behold your chaste conversation coupled with fierce.

Likewise, ye wives, be in subjection unto your own husbands. When you see the word likewise, you must always say, like what? That word just doesn't start in a sentence, it's normally because of something before.

Likewise, like what? Like who? Must I be in subjection? Like what? What, example does God give that he's saying, like this, I want you to subject yourself to your husband, in this particular passage, unsaved, a husband that's not righteous, a husband that's not good, a husband that treats you wrong in its context.

Don't leave him, win him, God says. But this is the way now, be in subjection. Likewise, like who? Let's look at the pre, the words that precede this chapter. Let's look at the words of chapter 2, and you'll find the word subjection again and again and again and again, and you'll find that he's pointing you to Jesus, like Jesus.

Oh, I love that. I thank God we can point women to Jesus. If you are not pointed to Christ as a standard, you're probably being pointed to heresy. He's our standard. Beloved, holiness is Christ. If you present any other standard as what holiness means, you're heretical.

Oh, the highest standard outwardly is precious, but if you're not Christ-like, that high standard is ugly. It's judgmental, separationist. Law is legalism. You can have the highest standard attainable, but unless Christ is the standard, your standard isn't scriptural.

The standard of this New Testament is Christ's. Take that away, and you have heresy. Put other standards and leave that out, and you have something ugly, and people won't want God, beginning with your children.

The fruit of the Spirit is Christ. The standard of the Scriptures is Christ's. Holiness is Christ's. If it isn't, it's heresy. If anyone points you to anything but Christ, you're in trouble. Run! He points us to Jesus.

Oh, your standard is beautiful, you people. Don't think I stand here looking at the modesty of your dress, condemning you. It's precious, but let me tell you, I have been with people so modestly dressed, your heart wants to crumble, but watch them react in one minute.

Watch them speak words with scathingness. In one minute, you want to run! It's so ugly. It must be Christ, or it's not worth anything preaching about, or giving, or following. He points us to Jesus. Likewise, likewise, ye wives, be in subjection to your own husbands, that if any obey not the word, they may also without the word be won by the conversation, by the life of the wives, while they behold your taste, conversation coupled with fear.

What about Jesus? He's an example of what I must be when God says, likewise, ye wives, be in subjection. What like Jesus? Let's look at Jesus, then. Let's look at the words, chapter 2, verse 19. For this is thankworthy, this is thankworthy, if a man for conscience toward God, endure grief, suffering wrongfully.

For what glory is it when, if when ye be buffeted for your faults, ye shall take it patiently? But if when ye do well and suffer for it, ye take it patiently. This is acceptable with God. For even here unto where ye call, because Christ also suffered for us, leaving us an example, that ye should follow his steps, who did no sin, neither was guile under his mouth, who when he was reviled, reviled not again.

When he suffered, he threatened not, but committed himself to him that judges righteously. Now in the light of this whole chapter, we come to these words, likewise, like Jesus, who left us an example, that ye should follow his steps, who did no sin.

When you don't do any sin, neither was guile upon any one. When you don't say anything wrong, and people revile you, you don't revile back. When you suffer, you don't threaten, you just commit yourself to him that judges righteously.

Likewise, ye wives, like Jesus, be in subjection to those who are not righteous toward you, to those who treat you wrongly, to things you don't deserve, so that you can win him. It's precious that God turns to the wife, you know, and says, I want you to be the one in subjection.

That doesn't belittle you, that honors you. God can't turn to a man. He made you in a way that he can honor you, because you can do it. You can do something to heal the whole. I often wonder why it seems most women come to God across the world before men, because somehow God can reach the hardened man to a woman's life.

Because you have a grace men don't have. You can be in subjection. You have something so great in you, that God has given you an ability that a man can't have, and so God has to bypass the strong, proud man.

Don't think it's a belittling aspect that God holds you. You are honored that God turns to you, where there's problems in the home, and he says, I want you to be the one. He starts at the woman, by honoring you.

You have the ability. You have a greatness to be like Christ, when there's troubles in the home. Likewise, ye wives, be in subjection to your own husbands, that if any obey not the word, they also may without the word be won by the conversation of the wives.

You're not going to win him when he gets under a great preacher, but you will win him if you obey me, God says. Without the word, you can win him. You can win him while they behold your chaste conversation, coupled with fear, whose adorning, let it not be that outward adorning of plating the hair, and of wearing of gold, or of putting on of apparel, but let it be the hidden man of the heart, in that which is not corruptible, even the ornament of a meek and quiet spirit, which is in the sight of God of great price.

For after this manner in the old time, the holy woman also who trusted in God adorned themselves, being in subjection unto their own husbands, even as Sarah, even as Sarah obeyed Abraham, calling him Lord, whose daughters ye are, as long as ye do well, and not afraid with any amazement.

Husbands Honoring Their Wives

Likewise, ye husbands, oh my, so it's not only the wives that have to be like Jesus. All right, now you can sit back and it's the husband's turn. Likewise, ye husbands, you mean I've got to be like Jesus, when my wife isn't perfect, when she fails, that I'm not allowed to become bitter against my wife, but to love and be not bitter, no matter how weak she is in her weakness, that there's times she fails, under the strain and pressure of life that I mainly put upon her anyway.

Likewise, ye husbands, oh, remember like who? Likewise, ye husbands, ye husbands, dwell with them according to knowledge. You know with that word dwell with, actually it means remain faithful to them, not just live under the same roof, separated.

Remain faithful, don't leave them now, they're the perfect, but dwell with them. Likewise, ye husbands, forgive like Christ, sometimes learn to keep Christ like Christ, when it's best to keep Christ. Likewise, ye husbands, dwell with them according to knowledge.

What does that mean? Well, literally it means this, using your common sense. Keep the home, the dwell with them according to knowledge. Remain faithful to them. Don't leave them, no matter how they fail, no matter how many times you're tempted to be bitter, don't.

Dwell with them according to knowledge, using your common sense, quickened by the Holy Ghost. You have the Holy Spirit in you. He will quicken your conscience. You're a hundred mile start of the unsaved man, to know how to react, because the Holy Spirit will quicken your common sense.

Dwell with them, ye husbands, according to knowledge, giving honor unto the wife. Oh, I love that. Do you? You say you obey God, sir. Your children honestly know you do. Do you honor your wife? How? Do you respect her opinion?

Do you stand when she walks in the room when guests are there? Do you open the car door? Do you show her any... How, if these things don't mean anything? How do you honor? How do you... Oh, you say you don't break the laws of God, you don't break the word of God, you keep it with all your heart.

Tell God right now how your children will remember you obeyed God. You gave honor. You giving honor, giving honor, giving honor, giving honor, not just a moment, right through the day, right through life.

It's not one moment, and then bury her in shame. It's everything the way you speak to her. Do you honor this that God gave you, as God wanted you to? Likewise, ye husbands, dwell with them according to knowledge, giving honor unto the wife, as unto the weaker vessels, and as being heirs together of the grace of life, that your prayers be not hindered, that your prayers be not hindered, that your prayers be not hindered.

Holy Marriages and Unhindered Prayer

Now, that little phrase is staggering. I wonder if the prayers of the American Church for America right now are not helping America just simply because of the state of the homes, of the marriages of those in the church.

That your prayers be not hindered, that little statement in its context, it basically means, it basically means, if you live right before God in your marriage, as God wants you to, he'll answer your prayers.

If you live right before God, generally in life he will answer your prayers. Listen to this, 1 John 3 verse 20,. For if our heart condemn us, God is greater than our heart, and knoweth all things. Beloved, if our heart condemn us not, then have we confidence toward God, and whatsoever we ask we receive of him, because we keep his commandments and do those things that are pleasing in his sight.

Oh, that your prayers be not hindered, that little term, basically means, if you live right before God in life, in your marriage, especially in this context, God will answer your prayers. Whatsoever we ask we receive of him, because we keep his commandments, and do those things that are pleasing in his sight.

There's always a condition to prayers being answered, but that little phrase, that your prayers be not hindered, in its context and in the light of all other scriptures about what God is speaking about here, it means so much more than that.

You see, a husband and a wife spend more time praying together in their lifetime for their children than anything else. I want to repeat that. A husband and wife spend more time in their lifetime praying together for their children than anything else.

I want you to listen to these words, and I want you to listen carefully. How our prayers will be hindered when one day we are forced to pray for our children to be right with God, if we were not holy in our marriage.

I want to repeat that. Oh, how our prayers will be hindered when we are forced to pray for our children to be right with God, if we were not holy in our marriage. When we pray for our children, how much of it is for God to undo the damage we've done, through our influences upon their lives.

I want to repeat that. When we pray for our children, how much of it is for God to undo the damage we've done, through our influences upon their lives, from our own failures and our sins in our marriage, that they have witnessed.

How can you expect God to answer your prayers for your children to be holy and Christ-like in their marriage, if you didn't show them it's possible, through the example of your life, especially in your marriage.

You see, if Christianity doesn't work in the home, can it work anywhere in truth? Your children will reason like that. Let your prayers be not hindered. Oh, how our prayers will be hindered when we are forced to pray for our children to get right with God, if we were not holy in our marriage.

The Example Parents Give Their Children

And we'll be the reason that our prayers will be hindered. I was preaching a while back in my country, and a very dignified, deeply religious lady wanted to see me desperately as the meetings were going on, and people were seeking God.

And so they arranged for me to see this lady. I would never sit alone with a woman. The minister of the church that had invited me said to me, Oh well, now you sit in the lounge with her, and my wife and I will sit in the dining room next to the lounge, so that we're right in the home.

She wants to speak private things, but you will be there, but we'll be right beside you in this house. So this lady sat. She wanted time. She wanted to be out of sight of others as she spoke to me. And there she sat, a very dignified, gracious-looking lady, tears in her eyes.

She said, Sir, our home is broken right now because my son-in-law wants to divorce our daughter. My son-in-law wants to divorce my daughter. It is so broken, our home. I said to her, Is he saved? She looked at me and she said, He said he was saved, and we trusted him.

But he hasn't treated my daughter rightly. He hasn't been right to my daughter. He's treated her wrongly. Now he doesn't want her. Now he wants to divorce her. What are we going to do? I looked at this broken lady and her fear and the hurting going on in her heart as a Christian mother.

And after a while I said, Lady, can I ask you a question? She said, Yes. I said, Is it possible? Forgive me for saying this. Is it possible that there's two sides to the story? That it isn't only his fault that this marriage has crumbled?

That your daughter's to blame also? Is it possible, Lady, that your daughter had something to do with the breakdown of this marriage? Is it possible, Lady, that your daughter gave him reason to stop loving her, to not want her anymore?

Is it possible? This lady's mouth fell open in shock and her eyes went wide. She sat back and after about a minute she just bowed and began to sob. After a while she composed herself. She said to me, Oh sir, God sent me here.

I have not wanted to admit this to myself. I've been fighting it out of my mind. But it's true. It's her fault. And she sobbed again. But then she said these words,. But there's something even more terrible than that, sir.

It's because of me. You see, she treats her husband exactly like I treated mine. When I look at the way she speaks, when I look at the way she treats them, my heart sinks. I can't challenge her. Because that's how I treated mine.

I did not give her the example. I did not live out an example to my children in my home of what a Christian woman should be to her husband. I only realize now how unhappy my husband must have been through the years.

But I marvel, now I marvel at his grace. He didn't leave me. He endured me. He endured me. Let your prayers be not hindered. It's a terrible statement, sir. Lady. It's a fearful statement. If you're not going to live it, wait for the fruit of it.

Christlikeness in the Home

Of not living it. When you have to start praying because of the fruit of what you were in that home. I was once in a town when I was a young preacher about 30 years ago. And I stayed in the home of a very godly woman.

She had little children. But something about this woman shook my heart. She was incapable of being unkind. She was incapable of saying an unkind word about anyone, no matter how guilty a person was. She just waited to try and defend.

Otherwise she kept quite agonizing if something ugly was being said about anybody. Even if it was true, she went through torment that something was being said. But she just seemed to live and wait for the moment she could protect or somehow defend or say something kind.

But it's like incapable of saying anything unkind about even people who deserved unkind words said about them. And I saw the Christ-likeness of this woman and it staggered my heart as other Christians fail without hesitating, condemning people.

Well, years went by before I went back to that town. It shook me when they invited me and people arranged meetings there. And I got back in that home. Now those little girls had grown up. They were women.

They were married with children of their own that were grown up. That's how many years went by. Here were the daughters now and I was in the home of the daughter. They brought the godly old mother, now aged, down to have a meal on the Sunday in the home, in the farmhouse.

I had preached that morning. I was going to preach tonight. But there they brought her to see me after all these years and her frailty. And you know, after all those years, that woman was so Christ-like, so much more Christ-like that she was like a God's presence in that home.

You weigh your words in such a person's company. When she left, I looked at the daughter and I said, Oh, your mother was a blessing to me when I was a young preacher, but she's just equally now. I'm just so blessed all over again that the woman can be so Christ-like as this woman, that it seems incapable of any unkindness, no matter how unkind the world is.

She's just kindness. Incapable of anything of anger or malice or judgment. And this lady looked at me and said, Keith, you don't know the half about my mother. My father was a monster, Keith. He wasn't just a bad man.

He was a monster in our home. He was so bad that one day when my father walked out the door, my sister and I grabbed my mother and we screamed, Let's run before he comes back. God doesn't want this of you, mommy.

God doesn't expect this of you, mommy. Let's get away from him. And our mother looked at us in shock and said, No, no, I'm not leaving your father. When I said, To death do us part, I meant it. Listen to me, my girls.

If your father was a psychopath, if your lives was in danger, I would run now with you. I would run. I would know God wouldn't want me to stay with a man who could murder you or kill you. But your father is not a psychopath.

He's just unsaved. Very unsaved. But when I married him, I wasn't saved. I've come to Christ. But getting saved doesn't mean I leave him because he's not good. I have to win him, girls. I have to win him and I'm going to.

I'm not leaving him. Don't you ever tell me to do that again. I have to win him. I'm going to. But listen to me, girls. I will never have to give account to God for anything your father does to me. Your father will have to give account to God one day.

I will never have to give account to God for anything he's done or said. But I will have to give account to God for how I react to your father. No matter how wrong your father is, I will have to give account to God for every word I utter and how I utter it.

For every reaction I react, no matter how unreasonable he is. And I don't want to have to give account to God for anything I've said or done. Nothing. Then she said these words, Keith, my father did come to Jesus.

He got gloriously saved as he agonized in the end over the life of my mother. She brought him to Christ, that eternal life. Because she wouldn't leave him. She won him. But we never saw my mother fail God once, Keith.

We've spoken about it again and again, my sister and I. We never saw our mother once fail God. She was Christ-like, no matter what our father did to her. And now we're married. And we have husbands, and they're saved.

But they're not perfect. They're not angels. And when our husbands fail, we're so careful, Keith, how we react to their failures. Do you know why? Because our mother left us an example, that no matter how horrible things are, God gives you grace if you want it to be utterly Christ-like, no matter what your husband's failures are.

If you want to be victorious, you haven't got him to blame for failures. The grace is there. And before we react to our husbands' failures, and they fail, though they're saved, we always remember our mother's life.

The example that she gave to us to prove to us you can be Christ-like if you want to, no matter how much they fail. We're so careful before we react to our husbands' failures because of our mother's example and life that showed us you can be victorious.

Is that good to you, ladies, that your daughters one day will be following your example, what you were in the home, the way you reacted when your husband failed, that you showed her how to be, and that it's possible by God's grace, that her conscience won't let her destroy the marriage, but win him because you showed him, you showed her.

Is that acceptable to you, mothers? Is that acceptable to you, fathers, that your boys are going to treat their wives like you treated yours? You showed the way, didn't you? What a godly man is. So as happy as your wife is to you, so happy will be your children's wives if that's what's going to happen.

If the example was what they're going to follow and say, well, that's Christianity, that's as far as you can go in victory, that's as much as God requires of me, what I saw in Daddy. You know, when I wanted to court Jenny, I can't tell you what happened to my heart when I saw my wife, you know.

I was ruined forever. It was the end of my... I don't know, I just... When I saw Jenny, I never knew there was such a beautiful thing on earth, you know. It hadn't occurred to me there was such beauty.

I was just smitten. But then now, I wanted to court Jenny. My father-in-law, they call him Oum Yanni Larou. He's an Afrikaner in our country. He's a boor, that means farmer. But, he's also a preacher.