On the local golf course, a guy is standing over his tee shot, looking up, looking down, measuring the distance, figuring the wind direction and speed.
His exasperated partner says, “What on earth is taking so long?”
The first guy replies, “My wife is on the clubhouse porch, so I want to make a perfect shot.”
His partner gazes at the clubhouse a moment, then turns back to his friend and says, “Forget it. It’s too far; you’ll never hit her from here.”
Ladies, do you ever feel like your husband is taking shots at you? Do you wonder why? Maybe there is a problem with him, but there are also some things that God suggests for you which will make you a target of your husband’s affection, and not his golf club.
Solomon wrote, “Better to live on a corner of the roof than share a house with a quarrelsome wife,” (Proverbs 21:9). What a hilarious picture to imagine some poor harassed husband huddled on his roof all night to avoid his argumentative wife.
Solomon changes the scene a bit to make the same point again: “Better to live in a desert than with a quarrelsome and ill-tempered wife” (Proverbs 21:19).  Can’t you just see a man stumbling along in the blazing sun dying of thirst saying, “At least it’s peaceful and quiet here. At home, now that was real suffering!”
Change the scene one more time. Have you ever tried to sleep in a leaking tent, drops of rain falling in your face every time you almost doze off? Solomon suggests a similar analogy when he says, “A quarrelsome wife is like a constant dripping on a rainy day; restraining her is like restraining the wind or grasping oil with the hand” (Proverbs 27:15-16). It just can’t be done!
Wives, do you make your home a place to which your husband would want to come home? Is yours a home of pleasant moods and encouraging words? What we say to each other – and how we say it – has much to do with how inviting our home environment will be.
“Pleasant words are a honeycomb, sweet to the soul and healing to the bones” (Proverbs 16:24). Fill your home with sweetness and healing. Fill it with pleasant words, not a constant dripping.
Hit your husband with pleasant words. It’s not that far out; take a shot at it today.

Keith Wishum is minister, Williams Road Church of Christ, Americus.