Proverbs 18:14 (NLT) says, “The human spirit can endure a sick body, but who can endure a downcast spirit?”
Because we are wonderfully made, our bodies have the ability to recover and heal from many illnesses. It is fascinating to see a sore heal from the inside out. The pain lasts for a relatively short time, but one day you wake up with no pain or open wound.
But what happens when you have a crushed spirit? How easy is it to bear? Specifically, in marriage, what do you do if your spirit is crushed?
A crushed spirit can stem from emotional or mental damage. In marriage, a wife may suffer when her husband repeatedly insults her, complains about her body or what she does or doesn’t do, or compares her to another woman who he thinks is a model wife.
There are two shredders that I have yet to mention. The damage to the wife’s mental and emotional well-being remains when she has to deal with her husband’s complaints about his sexual deficiencies. When a woman has children and as she ages, a woman’s body changes dramatically. Hormone levels can drop or even plummet over time. What once seemed like an exciting and effortless task to “get in the mood” for sexual activity can now seem like a daunting task.
Husbands generally do not understand these ills well. Some husbands don’t mind and expect their wife to turn on their sex act like some kind of machine with an on / off switch. This is a topic that will be explored in greater depth and separately from this article. But it needs to be mentioned, especially in regards to the impact it has on crushing the spirit of a wife.
The second spirit crusher in marriage is infidelity. Although there are some wives who leave their marriage and have affairs, the focus of this issue is the wife’s concern about her husband’s infidelity. Every insecurity a woman can have comes to the surface and overflows when her man turns his heart, attention and time to another woman.
Thoughts are disordered and scattered. Emotions and feelings are raw, unpredictable, and at times volatile. It literally hurts to hurt when a husband cheats. Even for a Christian wife, her spirit can feel trampled on, irreparably damaged, and rotten to the core. Has a crushed spirit.
It may appear that the blows are not stopping. Soon enough, you feel like you’ve been knocked out and have no energy or willpower left to get up again and take another hit. You may even feel like your husband has sucked you all your life. You have a crushed spirit.
But ladies, you have a fight in you. In many cases, there are things you can still do to heal your crushed spirit and save your marriage. God sends you ransoms in various ways. Prayer and meditation are of great help. You should never stop praying for your husband and your marriage.
Also, it is advantageous to seek the help of a professional who has experience working with marital problems. Concerns about intimacy and infidelity are difficult issues that many couples are not prepared to deal with alone. Be the Christian wife looking to resurrect romance and save marriage!
