“The rulers of the Philistines went to her and said, ‘See if you can lure him [Samson] into showing you the secret of his great strength and how we can overpower him so we may tie him up and subdue him. Each one of us will give you eleven hundred shekels of silver’” (Judges 16:5).
Women have great capacity to emotionally hurt the men in their lives. We need to be careful to be loyal to our husbands.
Consider the story of Samson told in Judges 14-16. Samson’s first wife betrayed him. The revenge Samson took on her and her family resulted in many deaths.
Do you remember how the woman Delilah tricked Samson? She surrendered him to his enemies. That treachery finally led to Samson’s killing of many more people and his own death as well.
Samson did many cruel things. I think they were done partly in reaction to his own emotional pain. The women in his life were disloyal to him. Their unfaithfulness led to his disillusionment and consuming desire for revenge.
I’m not blaming Samson’s women for what Samson did. His lack of self-control was his own problem. But I am saying that Samson, as strong as he was physically, could not cope with deception. He lost his temper and his self-confidence, which produced disastrous results.
The men who love us have become vulnerable to us. Sometimes, we forget these strong men are emotionally fragile. We must be careful not to hurt them. If we are disloyal, it can prevent them from becoming all God wants them to be. Our actions have the potential to destroy our families if we don’t guard our hearts and minds.
Kimberly Snider is a missionary to the Philippines.
From “Moments for Moms,” a free email subscription.
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