Slithering of the Snake

Slithering of the Snake

After over 40 years of marriage, Mark and I went to a marriage conference last weekend! Several people have asked me what was the most important thing we learned. My brain was so full of truths that I was not sure how to pick out a favorite. But these two words kept returning to my memory, “slithering snake.”

We were both so excited. But two days before, we had two huge fights over nothing...absolutely nothing. Mark and I know that when this happens, something big is coming up. Satan did not want us to experience this weekend. We prayed that God would do something so amazing, that we would not believe it. However, I actually doubted that he could answer that prayer.

Not that God was not all powerful, because he is. I figured that the conference leader may find out that we have been married for that long and he might even want to know how we stayed happily married, like a TV show. He would ask the common questions like “what was our secret?” I’ve read so many books and blogs on good marriages. What would be new? I had such a negative, pathetic attitude.

We drove up to a conference filled with 4,000 other people and we did not know a soul! I had a phone call right before it started and Mark and I were annoyed about the content of the call. The first half conference had wonderful speakers but i was thinking how I’ve heard all this stuff before. The reason I am giving all this background is to demonstrate the power of the “slithering snake.”

“Then the Lord God said to the woman, “What have you done?” She said, “The snake tricked me, so I ate the fruit.” So the Lord God said to the snake, “You did this very bad thing, so bad things will happen to you. It will be worse for you than for any other animal. You must crawl on your belly and eat dust all the days of your life.”

‭‭Genesis‬ ‭3:13-14‬ ‭ERV‬‬

(One of the speakers mentioned the idea and I wish I could give him credit but I can not remember who. I will be careful to not take credit for those words.)

Satan attacked Eve through trickery, deceit. He attacks us the same way. Looking back to the events leading up to the conference, the slithering snake was literally crawling around quietly, in and out of our lives, whispering, casting doubt about God’s goodness and power. He whispers lies about God’s Word. 

If I saw a slithering snake, I would scream and run away with fear. However, if he was slithering I probably would not even see him. I almost never see snakes. But obviously, they are everywhere. Why don’t we see them? They seem to lie still and wait.

What’s the best way to avoid snake bite? Simple answer – leave snakes alone. If we encounter a poisonous snake, run away. If we knew a snake had the power to kill us with their bite, why would we be foolish enough to hang around them?

The same thing is true in our marriages. When we knowingly sit near to a snake, we will probably be bitten. But everyday, we knowingly sit by snakes. Oh, we don’t see them. Satan is too crafty to be noticed. But he slithers into our conversations and causes us to speak disrespectfully to our husbands instead of encouraging them. He tempts us to spend too much money and then not be content with our husband’s salary. He makes us nitpick the small stuff about our husbands, instead of looking for the million of wonderful things about him. 

That is one of his very main slithering tricks. Another speaker gave this illustration. He asked us to look around the auditorium and look for people wearing red. Then he said to close our eyes and estimate how many people were wearing blue. We could not think of anyone. Why? Of course, we had only been thinking of the red. Same is true in our relationships. When we constantly focus on the negatives of the other person, we don’t notice the wonderful qualities of them. It is almost impossible to see the good.

Stop right now and name your spouse’s bad qualities. Pick of a pencil and make a list of the reasons you feel in love with them. If it is difficult, you just fell for the “slithering snake” trick. All day today, be alert to the slithering snake trick.

“Be alert and of sober mind. Your enemy the devil prowls around like a roaring lion looking for someone to devour.”

‭‭1 Peter‬ ‭5:8‬ ‭NIV‬‬

He wants to bite you and destroy you. One hundred percent of the time, he wants to destroy your marriage. If he can’t do that, he wants you to not pray together. He would love for you to just tolerate each other. He wants you to be too busy for each other. He can try to get you to blame the other person and not accept your part. His schemes are endless and crafty.

I woke up at 3:00 AM this morning and could not get back to sleep. I decided that somebody on this planet needed to hear about this. I cannot express how many things went wrong when I tried to publish this. Satan is a crafty one.