How Satan Would Love to Destroy Your Marriage Through Your Thought Life

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If you want to see Satan’s plans for you as a wife and mom and some of the tactics he uses to try to destroy your marriage and family, please read this post!
We MUST take every thought captive for Christ. Spiritual battle takes place in our thoughts and self-talk! The following post was written by Kelsey Shade
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Moms, Satan’s looking for ways to destroy you—and this pretty much outlines his plan, right here. Written in C.S. Lewis’ “Screwtape Letters” style, it’s absolutely chilling!

My Dear Wormwood,
I was thrilled to hear you have been making progress with the mother. You have a good lead, from what I hear. She’s feels over-worked, unappreciated, and discouraged? I’m so glad to hear it. If you tread carefully, this can be a great opportunity. With the kids waking her up every hour last night, we already have an advantage. A tired Mom makes for a more emotional Mom, and an emotional Mom is a vulnerable one.

I do have a few tips. First, aim your best efforts at her marriage.

As you know, we cannot do much with a unified marriage. Luckily for us, a cranky and exhausted wife can do wonders to change that. We must convince her that her husband is no longer the friend and ally she first married. Instead, we must reveal every sin and selfish habit, especially drawing attention to his thoughtless actions (mal-intended or not) against her.
Sometimes it’s the less obvious things, things the husband doesn’t even realize, that we can use to offend her the most. When he comes home from work and dumps his things on the counter nearest the door (instead of hanging his coat or putting away his keys), let her think of it as a direct assault on her work as a homekeeper. When he treks mud in with his shoes, let her think it is because he does not love her. Such extremes of thought may seem ridiculous to you or I, but to the exhausted mortal woman, it can seem possible. Your goal is to make her think the husband does not notice, or even better, that he does not care about her efforts at home.
Secondly, do what you can to keep her focused on her troubles and pains. Remind her how much her back aches, how draining the children were all day, and how many undone tasks still beckon her. Do not let her wonder what difficulties her husband faced that day or whether his back might also be aching. Valuing others above oneself is one of those silly, though strangely effective, tactics of the Enemy. If she stops to make him a cup of coffee, the next thing you know she’ll be rubbing his shoulders and flirting with him on the couch. It can progress out of your control if you’re not careful.
Along those lines, be sure the Mother starts to value productivity above everything else. Have her wake up early and work non-stop until bedtime. If the husband relaxes in the evening with an hour of computer gaming, be sure the wife notices the pile of unfolded laundry or unswept floors. Do not let her grab a book and relax alongside her husband. Diligence, often one of the Enemy’s virtues, when overdone can be used to our advantage as well. Convince her that as long as there is a shred of work to be done (and there always is), no one should be resting.

Then, as she folds and sweeps and he sits, you can introduce the sweet bitterness of resentment.

A word of caution here. Remember, the love of a husband can be dangerous to our cause. If he senses her unhappiness, he may begin to help or (even worse) show her affection. This is where previously planted seeds of resentment can be guided into full bloom. Make her think that his displays of affection are because he “only wants one thing”. Do not let her view his help with the dishes (or kisses or cuddling) as having pure motives. If he shows his desire for her, convince her that she is being used, not loved. As we both know, the ultimate Act of Marriage can bond them together in a way that can undo much hard work on our part. Because of this, do not allow her to prioritize that Act on her mental to-do-list. It is in our best interest to keep the wife busy, busy, busy and be sure she’s far too exhausted to consider it by the end of the evening…

If there is any last piece of advice I have for you, Wormwood, it is to keep the Mother looking to her husband or family for her fulfillment and comfort.

We know that the Enemy is always watching and willing to take the burdens of his children, but if we divert the Mother’s attention well enough, this fact can be forgotten. Make her look to her husband for worth and affirmation. Then, when he lets her down (as he is sure to do), she will be ours to torment. Yes, the worst thing that could happen would be for her to turn to Him with her needs and inadequacies. Once she realizes that the Enemy offers a peace that transcends her situation, our work could be utterly compromised.

Your Malevolent Uncle,

Screwtape

by Kelsey Shade

For the entire post, please click here.

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On my Peaceful Wife Blog Facebook page this past week – over 15,000 people saw that post. That is a record by a long shot. After 4 years of blogging, I know ahead of time that certain topics are going to create challenges for me in my personal life. Any time I post about spiritual warfare issues, I have to be ready for anything. The enemy does not like his tactics to be exposed.

This past week, I have had food poisoning along with 3 other health issues being majorly exacerbated. But Tuesday, the day I posted the above post to Facebook, things got interesting:

  • I went to the Franklin Graham prayer rally fine and came home. But when I tried to leave to go pick up my children from school, my power steering fluid was in a big puddle all over the driveway and I couldn’t drive my car. Thankfully. Greg’s parents were able to get our children from school. And they even loaned me a car so I could drive the next two days while my car was in the shop. We were concerned that it might be the rack and pinion which would cost $750 to fix.
  • We had www.peacefulsinglegirl.com, www.peacefulhusband.com, and our new site that is almost finished for peacefulwife.com crash for two days starting on Tuesday. We thought we had lost all of our files. That would have been a bummer.
  • I picked up my car Thursday and had it back in my possession less than an hour and was on my way to get my son from school when I heard a familiar sound from the back right tire. A thumping sound every time the tire spun around. Last spring, twice in a month, I got a piece of metal in a tire and had a severe flat right away. I stopped to check the tire. It was inflated. I picked up my son, then my daughter. Then I inspected the tire, there was another big hunk of metal in the tread. But the tire was not losing pressure so we went to the tire place right away. They fixed the tire in 15 minutes and didn’t even charge me!
  • Greg went by to pay our mechanic friend for my car, but he said it was just a clamp that had come loose on a hose and he didn’t charge us a thing.
  • Thursday night, the help desk got our files for our sites that had gone down. Everything was still there! WOOHOO! So thankful to God! I think that what we saw happening this week will push us to find a different solution for managing our sites that might be a much better thing in the long run, so I am grateful!

I seriously laughed every time something else came up. These were small things. They could have been much worse. Maybe they are not related to what I am sharing in the ministry this week – but I have found that we tend to have weeks like this when I post about spiritual warfare or about exposing strongholds of Satan in our lives. So I was not surprised. I sang a lot of praise songs to God at the top of my lungs. My favorites this week were “Total Praise,” “Agnus Dei,” and “Worthy Is the Lamb.” My goal is to thank God for the good things and to thank and praise Him in the trials. I want to learn to respond to trials with joy – the big ones and the small ones!

Consider it pure joy, my brothers and sisters, whenever you face trials of many kinds, because you know that the testing of your faith produces perseverance. Let perseverance finish its work so that you may be mature and complete, not lacking anything. James 1:2-4

I’m so thankful that God is sovereign, even over Satan, and that Satan can’t do anything to me without God’s permission. And then, when he does attack, my Lord will use even the bad things for my ultimate good and His glory. I see Him doing just that even this week.

Much love to each of you!

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