Pebble In The Shoe

Everyone knows that a pebble in the shoe is most irritating and frustrating.  Especially when you’ve tried to get it out and it refuses to fall out as easily as it hoped in.  You balance on one foot, take the other maddening pebble ridden shoe off, shake it once but just as you do that, you find yourself suddenly placed on an invisible ball which sends you in all directions as you desperately cling to balance. 

A wife can be that too…a pebble in the shoe.  Irritating and frustrating or as Elvis Presley put it, a “thorn in the side of a man.”  Obviously we could say the same about men but the point is…realizing when you’re the pebble and when you’re the shoe. 

Proverbs 31:12

¹² She does him good and not evil All the days of her life.

It may not seem like much but wives can either be a husband’s greatest rock for support or they can be that irritating little pebble that brings their world into chaos.  If a husband feels sexually frustrated, unsupported, unappreciated, disrespected, or unloved, his world then becomes unbalanced and more stressful. 

Believe it or not though, so does ours.  Why… because we know we’re not being the rock he needs, instead we’re being the pebble causing further irritation and discomfort.   

1 Peter 3:9

⁹ not returning evil for evil or insult for insult, but giving a blessing instead; 

for you were called for the very purpose that you might inherit a blessing.

Back as far as Adam and Eve we’ve tempted our husbands and nagged them to death as Delilah did Samson.  We’ve laughed within and out loud when we thought something was ridiculous… regardless of Who the commandment was from.  Because of this, a husband frustrated and humiliated by his wife, may feel neglected and become embittered towards her.  

Colossians 3:19

¹⁹ Husbands, love your wives and do not 

be embittered against them.

Abraham could have been bitter towards Sara after she laughed at the word of God but she was considered a faithful and submissive wife.  We aren’t perfect either but our aim should always be that our husbands will rise and praise us for our actions of love not reflect on all the evil irritations they endured.

Proverbs 31:28-29

²⁸ Her children rise up and bless her; Her husband also, and he praises her, saying:

²⁹ "Many daughters have done nobly, But you excel them all."

So why be a pebble when you can be a rock?