Mrs Carol Hopson-Trusting God in Troubled Times

While I was speaking at a retreat recently, I was suddenly verbally attacked for the scriptural truth I was teaching from Ephesians 5:22-23, where we are told, "Wives, be subject to your own husbands, as to the Lord." In the middle of the meeting, a woman stood up and tried to shame me for my teaching. She remained angry with me until the very end of the retreat, though I tried to speak with her several times. What should I do in this situation? Tell her how rude she was? Demand an apology? Put her in her place? Ignore her? Argue my point? If I relied on my emotions at this point, I would be in big trouble, so I knew that wasn't the answer. And so, because God is my Counselor through His Word, I remembered that I was to speak the truth in love and give grace to the hearer (Ephesians 4:16, 29; Colossians 4:6). That meant that I was to respond in love and give unmerited favor to the one who had disrupted the meeting and attacked me. So, only by the grace of God, I smiled at her and said, "I know that this can be confusing for some, and it's difficult to understand the first time you hear it, but I'm sharing what God says works the best for our marriage relationship. He's the One who made us and designed the institution of marriage. The Bible is His manual for how we are to live and how we can find peace, purpose, and fulfillment in the life He designed for us. I'd be happy to talk further with you after the meeting if you'd like, and I do understand your concern." With that, I smiled again and moved on. You could hear a huge sigh of relief in the audience as I moved to the next part of the message. How thankful I was for Colossians 4:6, which also counseled me, "Let your speech always be with grace, seasoned, as it were, with salt, so that you may know how you should respond to each person." Are you a Christian authorlooking for a quality publisher that offers over 25 years of experience and expertise? Have you written a book and want to start the publishing process? CSN Books offers quality publishing services including: editing , cover design , printing , and distribution. Check out csnbooks.com for more information and download their FREE Ebook, "Before You Publish." Learn what you need to know before choosing a publisher. We can be searched under Christian publishers or CSN Books.