What about us? Some good friend, or a dear wife, or a dear husband says to us, ‘You mustn't do this thing for this and for that reason. It is against the will of God. It is destructive to your own walk and conscience. People are watching you, unbelievers, friends, people to whom you witnessed.’ People reason with us: don't do this thing; our own conscience reasons with us. How do we react? Do we stiffen with pride? Who is this person telling me what I should do and what I shouldn't do? Are we huffy and proud and resistant, and even more angry, because our pride is hurt, and somebody has admonished us, however, reasonably and gently? Or are we like David who melted and changed his whole position? We read some precious words in Psalm 141, a Psalm of David. ‘LORD, I cry unto thee: make haste unto me; give ear unto my voice, when I cry unto thee. 2 Let my prayer be set forth before thee as incense; and the lifting up of my hands as the evening sacrifice. 3 Set a watch, O LORD, before my mouth; keep the door of my lips. 4 Incline not my heart to any evil thing.’ And then he goes on: ‘Let the righteous smite me; it shall be a kindness: and let him reprove me; it shall be an excellent oil, which shall not break my head: for yet my prayer also shall be in their calamities’ (Psalm 141:1-5). David praises God for the intervention of Abigail and for his deliverance. We praise God for the voice of conscience. We praise God for the conviction that comes to us when we read God's word. We praise God for those who privately take us to task when they are right; we praise God for that conviction that come sometimes through public ministry.
If you are a young man, and there is a young woman who has understanding and she is beautiful of countenance – whatever that means, because the greatest beauty is in a believer's character – and if there is somebody who maybe has the temerity and the grace to put you right and to correct you, and she is right; well, if she will have you, marry her. That is the way to find a virtuous wife, and it is the way to find a virtuous husband also.