If you are unfamiliar with The Screwtape Letters by C.S. Lewis, it is written as if it is letters from a senior demon giving instruction to a junior demon on how to keep a human from becoming a Christian. So far it is quite humorous and I find it to hit home in many areas. One being the subjects of arguments in domestic life:
"In civilised life domestic hatred usually expresses itself by saying things which would appear quite harmless on paper (the words are not offensive) but in such a voice or at such a moment, that they are not far short of a blow in the face....Your patient must demand that all his own utterances are to be taken at their face value and judged simply on the actual words, while at the same time judging all his [partners] utterances with the fullest and most over-sensitive interpretation of the tone and the content and the suspected intention. He must then be encouraged to do the same to him. Hence from every quarrel they can both go away convinced, or very nearly convinced, that they are quite innocent....Once this habit is well established you have the delightful situation of a human saying things with the express purpose of offending and yet having a grievance when offence is taken." The Screwtape Letters by C.S. Lewis
I don't know about you, but this hits home in our household. The actual words we might say seem fairly innocuous, but the tone in which the word are uttered can be nasty. This of course begets a nasty answer and voila! we are quarrelling as described by C.S. Lewis.
I pray that next time I will pause before responding and see where the devil is trying to get his foothold. Then I will "resist the devil and he will flee..." James 4:7
In His Grace...
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